Incompressible Metal flows- There are many industrial processes such as metal melting and related flow of molten metal which can be easily simulated using fluid dynamics. You can gain an insight on molten iron flow through an industrial tundish here.
Porous Media Flows: Soils, ceramics, rocks, certain bio-materials, ground landscapes, sponges all exhibit flow through them or exhibit through permeability or percolation behaviors. Flow through truncated cone based porous ceramic media can be read from Plappally et al. 2009. To understand theoretical models towards porous character fromYakub et al., 2013 is another way of approach
See: G Filter : A technology for an individual potter (English Subtitled) - YouTube
Lab to Land -कुम्हार के हाथ ‘छान’ तकनीक (panchjanya.com)
Sustaining Intangible Culture & Heritage Value Thoughts- G Filters - Hear to the talk after 1hr 40min after the youtube link video starts
See: G filter in Kerala, Amrita TV.
Wetland Design and Flow Dynamics
Design of constructed wetlands is a requirement in this arid locations of Thar Desert. This can help modify micro-climate of the location.
Further, wetlands can be designed in such a way that they are analogous to the purification or treatment systems which can help separation of contaminants from water. Wetland also influence the environment of the local region in a important way helping in flora and fauna to survive.
Waste laden Water flows through channels, canals and rivulets: Waste laden flows when passed through gets purified as they pass through critically designed pathways such as constructed channels, designed ponds with islands , treatment lagoons, WRSIS and FCWS systems etc. You can see such cases of incompressible hydrodynamics in SERRA. Read Through- My groups publications in DWT
Canal Based Irrigation: Small hydro (Micro /Pico hydro) Water Wheels and Gharats are effective in providing irrigation with the least operational energy expenditure. These are built in locations with running channels of water with good head. Read through my works in ASABE. You may like design and manufacture a system like this for your country's farmers.
Affordable ICT for Arid Agriculture: Rural farmers have been provided with local language SMS based control for operating their drip irrigated farms.
Soil and Water Conservation: Less energy intensive irrigation is expected. Agriculture is the possibly biggest user of water. Modification to the concept of tile based drainage was developed by the team by changing the geometry of the tile which are installed towards drainage management. These porous devices or tiles are good for sub-surface irrigation as well. Therefore water and soil conservation for horticulture farms can be performed using such technologies.
Read about SSPV in Vigyan Prakash, A Hindi Journal
The water we drink might have taken a pathway before it reached to the point it could be consumed. Pathways of water are somewhat like this, water is possible extracted from ocean/river/pond/sewage it would have been treated, distributed, used, added with waste or contaminated, recycled and again sent back to the source downstream. In each of these states are technologies and processes which can be defined using its life cycle energy expenditure value. You can gain an insight on the life cycle energy analysis on water use and how environmental sustainability is associated with it from here.
Energy expenditure in irrigation is connected to the techniques or the process with which irrigation is carried out. Read Through my works in RSER
For the works on India's irrigation energy intensity for some of the irrigation schemes, please browse through ESWR-Water Energy Nexus
You may like to see some ground work in irrigation - may be canal based or sub-surface ones.
G filter- Potter Community and Manufacturing
Point- of -use water treatment systems with high effectiveness are important for catering the needs of people living the bottom of the economic pyramid. Further community based manufacturing solutions of such systems are sustainable in India where traditional skills are preserved and sustained. We can involve potter communities and their technologies in manufacture of the G filter which is ceramic water filter introduced in India.
This was a Service Learning in Engineering example on the field.
NOTE: Knowledge bearers of the G Filter material - Potters knowing this technology reside in Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Chhatisgarh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh. Worked with NGOs namely S. M Sehgal Foundation, Rupayan Sansthan, ENACTUS IIT Madras as well as Arpan Seva Sansthan
Cost of Water: Cost of technologies and processes related to water treatment, distribution, end use, waste water treatment and recycling can be easily read through Plappally et al. 2013.
Agricultural produce and its value- It is very important to provide a farmer with an optimal cost of his expended money for his crop yield. This means for the crop to be profitable to the farmer, its use or storage or transport should be within a specific limit. A case on Bio-fuel crop profitability is taken and explained. The collaborator in this work is from the US department of Transportation Dr. Kevin Duemmel.
Solid Waste Management
Equine Ordure and its uses:-Recently horse populations in India were found to be declining. Marwar is a region known for its horses and is considered a ecological niche for this species. Some nomadic tribes of Rajasthan use horse dung and donkey dung as a traditional medicine. Some communities also make use of horse dung in making shelves protruding from the internal walls of their households to keep the family safe from air borne diseases. To know more, please read through the chapter Santankar et al 2018.
Marble powder/slurry waste and its uses: It can help in improving the microbial water purification capacity of ceramic water filters (G Filters). It also improves the strength of clay ceramics. Marble powder and slurry waste is locally available in plenty in mining areas of Rajasthan.
Waste Water Treatment
Layered Bioreactor and its uses:-. Layered bioreactors have been efficient in retrieving water from kitchen waste liquids from households or canteens which can be in the quality range of being used for human consumption or irrigation. The quality of water to drinking water standards is also further possible. Moringa Oleifera has been a traditional water purification plant material known which has helped achieve this target. Apart from that textile cloth waste becomes one of the other materials of the bio reactor designed at IITJ. To know more, please read through the DWT paper Yadav et al 2013.
Local ropes and geo-textile development:-Recently geotextile from local Crotalaria Burhia species (local to Western Rajasthan) was produced and tested for soil erosion management. This fiber is used to make ropes by a Santhi or Sansi community. If you are interested to know more about the procedure and make a geotextile of your own, please read through the paper Dave et al. 2017.
Surveys
Health, behavior, education status, size of family, economic status, number of children below 5 years of age, availability of medical facility are parameter which affect use of ceramic water filters in different locations. If interested to know how, please read the work on Rural Public Health in the publication page.
Tapioca or Cassava was recently tried out near Thar Desert with good success. This unconventional crop was grown in collaboration with CTCRI, Udaipur/Trivandrum. A new patented method of farming (under RuTAG IITD) capable of desalting saline soils was tried to achieve this growth. We are working with various organizations to disseminate this technology to the local people such that they can reap the benefits of this technology and practice sustainable organic farming.
For More Details - RuTAG IIT Delhi
Also Read The Hindu
Apart from Service learning in engineering performed on field, - Sandeep Gupta and Team
Context based conceptualization of basic material science concept of stress and strain was based using maps by my student Dr Amrita Nighojkar and team.
Epidemics such as CoVID 19 provided us an opportunity to play around with digitization of course delivery and implementing aspects of absorption of a subject detail. This work was also performed by my student Dr Amrita Nighojkar and Team.
Education had started to grab digital tools which were emerging due to necessity for help to be delivered to society in a lucid manner. Meraj Ahmad started pondering several aspects of emerging thoughts to disseminate knowledge recently.
Working in the villages near to Thar desert towards achieving grass root localization of technologies and processes that can enhance villages own capability to achieve the targets of SDGs is of immense importance.
19th ICSD 2024, France : A photo and document evidence analysis of issues in the districts of southern Rajasthan on behalf of UNICEF, ARAVALI GOR and UBA-MPUAT, Udaipur, Rajasthan. For more details visit https://www.ontariointernational.org/acceptedpapers.htm.
ISDRS 2024: Rescuing the SDGs 2030 for Sustainable Livelihood, Nepal: A issue based participatory discussion based paper will enumerate the issues in 11 districts of Marwar region. This work is in collaboration with UBA-IITJ ARAVALI GORand UNICEF Rajasthan. For more information, please visit https://2024.isdrsconferences.org/.