Dr. Varun's Research Lab

Being the head of a solar energy centre (SEC), I am responsible for creating awareness among undergraduate, postgraduate, and PhD students, handling R&D activities, and publishing research articles and IPRs in the solar energy and renewable energy domains. 

In SEC, students have developed expertise in real-scale setup design, modelling, simulation, fabrication, development, calibration, and testing. We also conducted uncertainty analysis, mathematical modelling, thermo-economic optimization, LCA analysis, and energy simulation using LEAP, Energy Plus, DoE, and Simulink for optimizing test selection, scripting, and data analysis using Python and MS Excel. Scholars at SEC are well-versed in data analysis and have expertise in using programming languages such as R and Python for statistical analysis and modelling. I am confident that SEC students' research experience, combined with strong communication skills, makes them an ideal candidate to be a flagbearer in the renewable energy field.

Thermo-hydraulic efficiency improvement through creating artificial roughness in solar air heaters (SAH) is one of the trending areas of research in the field of solar energy, which is carried out through PhD, postgraduate, and graduate student teams during the Summer Internship Programme (SIP) and as a major project under the SEC.

The Smart Hybrid Solar Kitchen is another creative project that has attracted more attention among SEC students. The objective is to develop a smart kitchen that can operate in hybrid mode and with three different energy sources, including solar, electric, and LPG.

Different academics are researching Smart Hybrid Indirect Solar Dryers with various thermal energy storage (TES), including sensible thermal storage (including sand, granular, stones, etc.) and latent heat storage (including paraffin wax, polyethylene glycol, etc.), for a variety of crop drying, heating, heat exchanging, and agricultural processes.

Solar updraft towers, solar cycles, solar dividers, solar trees, solar tiles, solar roads, solar-based hot and cold water supply units (with Peltier effect), and vertical-axis wind turbines for highways are other projects in the field of renewable energy on which our students are focusing now.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT: PROJECT WORK AS PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (PI) 

in 

SOLAR ENERGY CENTER

1. Project: Design, development, and performance analysis of a Smart Hybrid Solar Kitchen.

Sponsor/Approving Body: 1st Phase: College of Engineering Roorkee; 2nd Phase: TEQIP-III, UTU, Dehradun

Period/Status: 1st Phase: January 2019 to May 2019 (Completed); 2nd Phase: August 2019 to March 2021 (Completed). 

Budget (Rs): 1st Phase: ₹20,000/-; 2nd Phase: ₹2,66,300/-, Extension: ₹30,000/-=₹2,96,300/-

Deliverables: The entire working setup of the kitchen was fabricated and installed, a patent was applied, and it is currently in the testing phase.

Video Link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/kWBHVpoz9DtE1qth8

2. Project Title: Design, development, and performance analysis of various artificial roughness in single and double pass solar air heater.

Sponsor/Approving Body: Self-funded + COER + UPES 

Period/Status: Various phases from January, 2017 April, 2023 (completed). 

Budget: Self-funded + COER + UPES 

Deliverables:

·        Seven Bachelor major projects (16 students), one M.Tech. Project and one PhD project have been awarded.

·        7 SCIE Papers, 3 SCOPUS have been published

·        3 Best paper/poster award have been won by students group at various national and international platforms

3. Project Title: Design, Development, and Testing of Hybrid Indirect Solar Dryers with Thermal Energy Storage for Agricultural Uses.

Student Group: B.Tech. Final year (Major project), UPES  

Period/Status: August, 2022, to April, 2023 (completed). 

Budget: UPES SHODH Project grant

Deliverables:

·        One SCIE Papers and one SCOPUS journal article have been submitted

·        Student group won best project/poster award during Capstone project exhibition

·        Applied for patent

4. Project Title: Design, Development, and Testing of Automatic Box Solar Dryers with Thermal Energy Storage for Agricultural Uses.

Student Group: B.Tech. Pre-Final year (Major project), UPES 

Period/Status: August, 2022, to April, 2023 (completed).

Budget: UPES SHODH Project grant

Deliverables:

·        One SCOPUS Papers has been submitted

·        Student group is runner-up in Capstone project 

OTHER PROJECTS FROM SOLAR ENERGY CENTRE