Thermal performance study and evaluation of comfort temperatures in vernacular buildings of North-East India

Solar passive techniques are being used in vernacular buildings throughout the world. Researchers have done extensive study on thermal performance of vernacular buildings in the different parts of the world. Vernacular architecture of North-Eastern India represents the principle of climate-responsive architecture, which still lacks experimental validation and quantitative analysis. Thermal comfort not only makes the occupants comfortable but also governs energy consumption in the building. Detailed field studies on thermal performances of typical traditional vernacular dwellings in different bioclimatic zones have been undertaken. This field study includes detailed survey of 150 vernacular dwellings, field tests and thermal sensation vote of 300 occupants on ASHRAE thermal sensation scale. Field test includes measurement of temperature, humidity, illumination level and building design parameters. Thermal performances of these vernacular dwellings were evaluated for winter, pre-summer, summer/monsoon and pre-winter months of the year 2008. This evaluation is based on ‘adaptive approach’, which is the outcome of the field studies and is now part of ASHRAE standard 55/2004 for predicting comfortable temperature of naturally ventilated buildings. This study also tried to find out the range of comfort temperature in these vernacular buildings for different season of the year. It has been found that these vernacular dwellings perform quite satisfactorily except in the winter months and the occupants feel comfortable in a wider range of temperature.     

MMMM 2014-Minerals Metals Metallurgy & Materials Exhibition and Conference

正September 4-7,2014 at Pragati Maidan,New Delhi,IndiaThe 10th Edition of the event MMMM 2014 will be colocated with five other highly focused events i.e.Techlndia,CWE,IMEX,Power Industry India and UMEX.This will cover the entire gamut of industries and provide greater returns on time and money invested,for exhibitors,delegates and visitors alike.     

Simulating the impact of biofuel development on country-wide land-use change in India

India’s growing population and economy generate an increasing demand for energy. Facing the decline of global fossil fuel resources, the Indian government and energy industry are considering the long-term expansion of biofuel production in order to increase energy security. This development leads to a strong competition of energy crops versus food crops for land and may result in an increasing pressure on natural resources. In a pilot scenario study, the LandSHIFT model is applied to assess the impact of biofuel production on land-use change in India up to the year 2030. The model aims at the spatially explicit simulation of land-use change and its relation to other global change processes on the national up to the global scale. It explicitly addresses competition between land-use activities such as human settlement, biofuel production and food production as well as the resulting effects on the spatial extent of natural land. Baseline of the study is a simulation with drivers from the “Order from Strength” scenario of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. To illustrate the consequences of expanded biofuel production for the extent of natural land, we calculate three scenarios of bioethanol production to substitute 5%, 10% and 20% of the expected petrol demand in 2030. In the simulations shown, a comprehensive linkage is made between driving forces (such as population change) and policies (such as biofuel usage) that will affect land-use change over the coming decades.     

印度锅炉设计应注意的问题

随着印度经济的快速发展，其国内电力供应与需求之间的矛盾越来越突出，这为中国电力行业的出口创造了商机。文中根据我公司刚刚完成的印度某项目煤粉锅炉，对锅炉设计中需要注意的问题进行总结归纳，以便为以后的出口工程做些参考。     

Air Pollution Due to Opencast Coal Mining and the Characteristics of Air-Borne Dust--An Indian Scenario

Opencast coal mining creates more air pollution problem in respect of dust and the fines contain coal particles, benzene soluble matters etc. To maintain the energy demand, opencast mining has been growing at a phenemenon rate in India. There is no well defined method for assessing the impacts on air quality due to mining projects. An investigation was conducted to evaluate the impacts on air quality and the characteristics of the air-borne dust due to opencast coal mining in Indian context. The study area has been described and the sources of air pollution were identified. Methodology adopted for the selection of air monitoring stations and air pollution monitoring to evaluate the impacts on air environment due to coal mining activities have been discussed. Impacts on air quality have been assessed on the basis upwind and down wind concentrations of air pollutants. SPM and RPM concentrations were found to be very high in work zone as well as surrounding locations. The SPM was subjected to particle size analysis using different techniques. It was observed that the particulates were more respirable in nature and the median diameter was around 20 w . Variation of weight percentages for different size ranges has been discussed as a function of mining activity. Benzene soluble matters and anions in SPM were found to be high in comparison to other areas. Settleable dust and its compositions were also analysed. The methodology adopted for the study may be utilised to assess the actual contribution of air pollutants due to other coal projects.     

The energy-irrigation nexus and its impact on groundwater markets in eastern Indo-Gangetic basin: Evidence from West Bengal, India

South Asia in general and India in particular is heavily dependent on groundwater for supporting its largely agrarian population. Informal pump irrigation services markets have played an important role in providing access to irrigation to millions of small and marginal farmers and had positive equity, efficiency and sustainable impacts in water-abundant regions such as West Bengal. Quite predictably, in such pump lift-based economy, fortunes of energy and irrigation sectors are closely entwined. This has often been called the ‘energy-irrigation’ nexus. There are two major sources of energy for pumping groundwater, viz. electricity and diesel. Most of the current discourse in the field has looked only at the ‘electricity-irrigation’ nexus to the exclusion of the ‘diesel-irrigation nexus’. This paper looks at both these aspects. In doing so, it makes two propositions. First, high flat-rate electricity tariff encourages development of water markets whereby the water buyers—who are mostly small and marginal farmers—benefit through access to irrigation. Second, low rate of rural electrification has forced majority of farmers to depend on diesel for groundwater pumping and the steep increase in diesel prices over the last few years has resulted in economic scarcity of groundwater. This in turn has had serious negative impacts on crop production and farm incomes. Using primary field data from West Bengal, India, this paper makes a case for rapid rural electrification and continuation of high flat-rate tariff, which would in turn support developed groundwater markets and provide access to irrigation to the poor and marginal farmers.     

Design of safer agricultural equipment: Application of ergonomics and epidemiology

A vast majority of the world's workers are employed in agricultural activities and are exposed to a wide variety of hazards. Since agriculture is primarily decentralised activity, it is often difficult to set and implement work safety norms and standards. While standards can be set for equipment manufactured in large factories, it is not easy to monitor its condition in use. For equipment fabricated in small workshops or by the farmers themselves, it becomes very difficult to ensure that design standards are adhered to especially when the users of equipment are hired labourers on daily wages.

This paper presents the results of an epidemiological study to determine the main causes of injuries among farmers in nine villages in the state of Haryana in Northern India. The study revealed that the largest number of traumatic injuries are caused by fodder cutting machines and threshers. The designs of these machines have been made safer using ergonomics principles. A large number of minor injuries are caused by hand tools.     

Manually powered manufacture of keyed bricks

The production of bricks, one of the main components in conventional construction technology, has been carried out by either a hand moulding process or by a fully mechanized process. Both processes have limitations in developing countries. An alternative solution is the use of decentralized non-power-consuming brick making units, utilizing unconventional raw materials which do not require baking to develop strength. A manually energized brick making machine (MEBM) has proven the feasibility of extruding various mixes including a lime-fly ash-sand mixture. The production of bricks with a keyed cross-section is investigated using the MEBM to establish the functional and economic viabilities of the technology to create a construction technology which relies on abundant resources, unskilled labour and zero energy input. La production de briques, l'un des elements essentiels de la construction traditionnelle, est assuree soit par moulage manuel, soit par des procedes entierement mecanises. Les deux procedes montrent leurs limites dans les pays en voie de developpement. Une solution alternative consiste a utiliser des machines decentralisees ne consommant pas d'energie, faisant appel a des matieres premieres non conventionnelles qui n'exigent pas de cuisson pour donner la resistance a la brique. Une machine a fabriquer les briques mue par la force manuelle (manually energized brick making machine - MEBM) a prouve sa capacite a extruder differents melanges comportant un melange de chaux et de sable cendre. La production de briques a section creuse au moyen de la MEBM est a l'etude, afin d'etablir la faisabilite economique et fonctionnelle de cette technique propre a creer une technologie de construction basee sur des ressources abondantes, une main-d'oeuvre non qualifiee et une depense energetique nulle.     

Substitution and price elasticity estimates using inter-country pooled data in a translog cost model

Pooled data across several developing countries and the U. S. were used to estimate long-run substitution and price elasticities in a translog framework for the paper, iron and steel, and aggregate manufacturing industries. While the quality of the estimates varies across the several industry-specific models, the results suggest higher values for these elasticities than appear commonly used in integrated assessment models. Estimates of own-price elasticities of energy range from − 0.80 to − 1.76 and are comparable to estimates from previous econometric studies in the context of developed countries (− 0.77 to − 0.87). Substitution elasticities show wider variation across countries and industries. For energy and capital they range from − 1.96 to 9.80, for labor and energy from 2.61 to 7.11, and for energy and material from − 0.26 to 2.07.     

中国综采成套技术和设备在印度应用的技术经济效果分析

介绍中国综采设备在印度东南煤炭公司(SECL)的使用条件、支架架型与主要技术参数,对使用中工作面矿压显现进行了全面分析,并针对出现的问题和煤层埋深浅、顶板岩层坚硬难冒特点,采取地面钻孔爆破处理上覆岩层的措施,取得显著的技术经济效果。