Education

EDUCATION

2011-2017, Ph.D., Indian Institute of Science

Thesis: Design and Development of a Three-degree-of-freedom Parallel Manipulator to Track the Sun for Concentrated Solar Power Towers:

In this work, two three-degree-of-freedom parallel manipulators, viz., the 3-UPU wrist and 3-RPS, have been proposed to track the sun in central receiver systems. The proposed parallel manipulators support the load of the mirror and wind loading at three points resulting in less deflection and thus a much larger mirror can be moved with the required tracking accuracy and without increasing the weight of the support structure. The algorithm for sun tracking for 3-RPS manipulator was developed, extensive simulation study with respect to actuation required, variation of joint angles, spillage loss and leg intersection had been carried out. FEA was carried out to optimize the design of structural members. A prototype of 3-RPS heliostat had been made and an autonomous sun tracking experiment using a PID control strategy implemented in MATLAB-Simulink using a low-cost custom made motor driver circuit was carried out. It was demonstrated that the proposed parallel mechanism works as good as the traditional serial mechanisms.

1. Actual sun tracking using the 3RPS heliostat for Oct 15 2016

2. MATLAB Simulation of the 3-RPS heliostat tracking the sun

3. Actual sun tracking using the traditional azimuth-elevation mechanism on Oct 15 2015.

4. SimMechanics simulation of the 3-RPS heliostat

5. PhD gallery

2009-2011, Master of Engineering, Indian Institute of Science

Thesis: Dynamics of rotors supported on flexible frames and bearings:

The work tried to incorporate FEM in the study and analysis of large rotating structures and to generate simulations that can accommodate the coupled behavior of flexible disks, flexible shafts and flexible support structures into a single, massive, multidimensional model. Also, the stability of the rotor-shaft system with respect to the bearing coefficients had been studied and the bearings were optimized for minimum power loss. The unbalanced responses of the rotor-shaft system with respect to various bearing types, viz., plain cylindrical bearings, 4 axial groove bearings and elliptical bearings had also been considered. The other major work carried out in the thesis was the effect of frames on the critical speeds of the rotor-shaft system and to optimize the design parameters of the frame (material selection, dimensions of members) so that the frame does not affect the critical speed of the rotor-shaft very much.

2003-2007, Bachelor of Technology, College of Engineering- Thiruvananthapuram

Thesis: Analysis of Super Cavitational flow:

The project was inspired by the Russian submarine which was capable of firing torpedos that attained very high velocities underwater. The phenomenon that makes such high velocities possible is called Super Cavitation during which the water bubbles formed would coalesce to form a cloud of water vapor around the torpedo. This cloud of water vapor reduces the frictional drag around the torpedo. I studied this phenomenon by using a hydrofoil fixed stationary and pumping water at very high velocities until super cavitation was observed for various velocities and angle of attack. The simulation study was carried out in ANSYS Fluent.