News and Events, NAL, Bangalore

Dr Sekhar Majumdar, Head of Computational Theoretical Fluid Dynamics Division (CTFD) retired on 31 January 2008 after 19 years of fruitful service. I have known Dr Majumdar since 1992 when I joined NAL. He still looks the same as he did in 1992 and if anything he is even more productive today.

Dr Majumdar assumed the leadership of CTFD division on March 2005. He is essentially a mechanical engineer holding B. E., M. E. and Ph. D in that discipline. He is really an old timer in CSIR since he started his career in Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute, Durgapur in 1972. Looking back, a turn in his career seems to have come with his tenure at Karlsruhe University, Germany from 1983 to 1989. During this time he worked with Prof. Rodi and developed RANS code for arbitrary configurations. I also get the feeling that he fell in love with turbulence during this time. He joined NAL in 1989 and continued to develop this code (RANS3D). Thanks to his efforts, this code is probably the only code which boasts of a number of turbulence models like k-epsilon, k-omega, SST, Spalart Allmaras and v2f.

Perhaps thanks to his mechanical engineering genes, while most of us looked into aerospace applications, Dr Majumdar took his RANS3D to such diverse areas as analysis of underwater bodies, ship hulls, weather radar radomes, aerostat balloons and so on. Thanks also to his efforts, we now have LES capability. I am sure that we will miss his expertise since we still need to substantially improve upon these capabilities.

Dr Majumdar has undoubtedly received fame at both national and international level today. He was the National Committee Co-Chairman of Asian Computational Fluid Dynamics Conference (ACFD7) hosted by NAL, which was completed successfully recently. He served as the chairman of the CFD Division of AeSI for the last 4 years. He was recently elected as a Fellow of AeSI. He is also a Member of Hydrodynamics Panel of Naval Research Board (NRB).

Dr Majumdar is one of those very few people who have an academic bent of mind. He has been an excellent teacher and guide to many of us. His passion for teaching has helped many students to benefit from his deep knowledge of turbulent flows. He has served as visiting faculty and examiner for Masters and Ph.D. theses. I understand that henceforth he will dedicate most of his time to teaching.

Though he is known for his work on turbulent flows, he is very laminar by nature. On behalf of CTFD family, I wish Dr Sekhar Majumdar and his family, good health, happiness and active retired life.

Dr. Gangan Prathap, our most respected teacher and mentor, is an inspiration to all. One can rarely find a great personality like Dr. Prathap who is academically brilliant, an internationally renowned researcher and an equally wonderful human being. We were extremely fortunate to have worked very closely with him for many years.

His deep insight and creative mind have led to his achievements that brought him wide recognition. It should be remembered that Dr. Prathap, with his exceptional academic records from the IIT, was a true Indian, who has dedicated his research activities for our country. He pursued science with the insight of a philosopher and attitude of a sage. His outlook on science, technology, philosophy and epistemology are remarkable. Those fortunate enough to have worked with him in the area of Structural Mechanics and the Finite Element Method (FEM) will always remember him for his exceptionally strong theoretical foundations, meticulous work, punctuality, effortless ease and style of working, and as a remarkable colleague. He was a role model with impeccable integrity and a constant source of inspiration and strength. His commitment to his group was immense and we owe him a great debt of gratitude.

His significant contributions to the field of science and engineering is mainly on non-linear structural mechanics, founding the basic principles of the science of finite element formulation of constrained multi-strain field problems - statement of conceptual scheme, definition of the appropriate vocabulary for this new area, design of operational procedures to remove inconsistencies in constrained strain-field definitions and for error analyses etc. and the design and development of a library of field-consistent elements, the finite element analysis of composite structures - development of FEPACS - a general purpose package for analysis of composite structures, error analysis in finite element elastodynamic problems, stress correspondence paradigm and work on projection theorems for elastostatics and elastodynamics in finite element computation, development of finite elements based on higher order theories, studies on finite element modelling of structural dynamics, production run stress analysis of aircraft structures, studies on scientometrics etc. He has over 90 publications in International Journals, over 300 short papers and reports and authored the book ‘The Finite Element Method in Structural Mechanics’, published by Kluwer Academic Press (1993).

His contributions brought him the prestigious award for scientific research in the country, the S.S. Bhatnagar Award, in 1990. He is a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Science Academy. He is a member of many professional societies, expert committees and editorial boards of many reputed international journals.

It is beyond doubt that Dr. Gangan Prathap will perform the role of Vice-Chancellor of CUSAT with great distinction and continue his work untiringly. He will continue his spirit of promoting education and research. We wish him all success, good luck, greater achievements and many more laurels in the years to come.

An agreement for collaborative development of Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Autopilot System was signed on 30 January 2008 between NAL and Coral Digital Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore. Collaborative development of UAV autopilot requires CORAL to Integrate Microelectro-mechanical system (MEMS) based accelerometers, rate gyros, global positioning sensor and air data sensors including angle of attack sensor with a processor board capable of hosting the UAV control laws and embed the onboard software developed jointly by NAL and CORAL. CORAL will manufacture and provide the UAV autopilot with onboard navigation software in India and abroad with support from NAL.

Ms C Kamali, Scientist, Flight Mechanics and Control Division has been awarded the Ph.D degree in Electrical Engineering from the Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belgaum for the thesis titled ‘Real Time Parameter Estimation Techniques for Aircraft Fault Tolerant Control Systems’ under the guidance of Dr J R Raol.

The Thacker Memorial Tournament was organized by NAL, Bangalore and CSIR, Sports Promotion Board, New Delhi from 27 to 30 January 2008 at NAL.

The inaugural ceremony of the tournament was held on 27 January 2008 at 10.30 am at the NAL cricket grounds. The chief guest for the event was Mr Sanjay Raj, an International Basketball Player and currently working for Vijaya Bank in Bangalore. He has received many awards including the Ekalavya award and the Karnataka Olympic award in the field of basketball.

Dr Upadhya inaugurated the newly laid clay tennis courts at NAL. The event began with a melodious invocation by the children of NAL campus. The participants from various laboratories marched to the tune of the KV, NAL band. Dr Upadhya, Director, NAL addressed the gathering and highlighted the sporting traditions of CSIR. He spoke about the contributions of Prof. M S Thacker to CSIR and his association with IISc., Bangalore and NAL. He wished the participants good luck, a pleasant stay at NAL and an enjoyable tournament. Mr. Sanjay Raj then addressed the gathering and declared the meet open.

The valedictory function was held on 30 January 2008 at the Dr S R Valluri Auditorium. Newsletters were released on all the days with detailed information about matches played. A web site with detailed information about the tournament was also created for the event. The website could be accessed at www.nal.res.in/spb

Shiv Visvanathan, the maverick sociologist, once asserted that the report of the Justice Lentin Commission set up to inquire into the death of 14 patients in a Mumbai hospital deserved to be slotted in a unique literary genre. The Columbia Accident Investigation Report is another such candidate.

On February 1, 2003, the US Space Shuttle Columbia met with a tragic accident just 16 minutes before scheduled touchdown, resulting in the death of its seven-crew members, including Kalpana Chawla. The Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) was formed to inquire into the causes of the disaster. This Board was formed within two hours of the loss of signal from the spacecraft! The Board, chaired by Admiral Gehman, comprised 13 members (including a Nobel Laureate). The report of the Board was released within seven months.

The investigation revealed that a piece of foam had struck one of the wing panels during launch and caused a breach in the thermal protection system (TPS). During re-entry, this breach in TPS allowed superheated air to reach the interior of the Shuttle resulting ultimately in its disintegration and destruction. The tragedy of the accident was further compounded during the investigation by the death of two US Forest Service Personnel in a helicopter accident during their search for the spacecraft debris.

The report (available in the NAL library) is the impressive outcome of an inquiry into not just the accident and its immediate and direct causes, but also the underlying flaws and weaknesses of the organizational structure, management procedures and engineering practices of NASA and specifically the Shuttle program. To quote from the report, “… too often, accident investigations blame a failure only on the last step of a complex process, when a more comprehensive understanding of that process could reveal that earlier steps might be equally or even more culpable.”

The investigation, as can be inferred from the report, is a stellar achievement by any standards. The report makes for gripping reading and evokes a sense of awe on the scale and depth of the investigation and the scientific spirit with which it was carried out. Apart from facts, analyses and background history, it offers a philosophical perspective on what failures mean and how we as a scientific community should confront tragic ones such as these. The report is replete with valuable lessons for organizations such as ours and many others involved in development programs. I only quote a paragraph from the Executive

Summary: “The organizational causes of this accident are rooted in the Space Shuttle program’s history and culture including the original compromises that were required to gain approval for the Shuttle, subsequent years of resource constraints, fluctuating priorities, schedule pressures, mischaracteri-zation of the Shuttle as operational rather than developmental, and lack of an agreed national vision for human space flight. Cultural traits and organizational practices detrimental to safety were allowed to develop, including: reliance on past success as a substitute for sound engineering practices (such as testing to understand why systems were not performing in accordance with requirements); organizational barriers that prevented effective communication of critical safety information and stifled professional differences of opinion; lack of integrated management across program elements and the evolution of an informal chain of command and decision-making processes that operated outside the organizational rules.”

That this accident happened during the centenary year of powered flight was tragically ironic. However, the subsequent investigation serves as a fitting tribute to the brave astronauts who gave their lives in the grand human quest of exploring and furthering our frontiers in this universe. Let us remember them, and not forget the lessons.

G M Kamath

Dr A R Upadhya, Director, NAL will be holding additional charge as Scientist-in-Charge, C-MMACS, from 31 January 2008,following the appointment of Dr Gangan Prathap as Vice Chancellor, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kochi.

Dr Vidyadhar Mudkavi is nominated as Head of the Computational and Theoretical Fluid Dynamics Division (CTFD) and Dr Jaideep Sahai Mathur as Joint Head.

Mr M K Sridhar will take over as Head of Materials Science Division and will also continue to function as Head, IFCAP and Dr A Giridhar will be the Deputy Head of IFCAP.

Mr V Nagarajan will be Head of National Trisonic Aerodynamic Facilities (NTAF) Division and Dr G K Suryanarayana will be the Deputy Head from 1 February 2008.

Dr T G Ramesh, Head, Materials Science Division, Dr V Shubha, Mr Neelakanta Iyer, Mr Sivakumar and Mr T R Ramakrishnan have been declared winners of ‘Indigeni-sation of Aeronautical Equipment’ Award for the year 2007.

Dr Sekhar Majumdar, Head, CTFD has been elected as the Fellow of The Aeronautical Society of India.

Report on the training programme on Intrapreneurship Development (7-12 January 2008)

The Human Resource Development Centre (CSIR), Ghaziabad, New Delhi and the FORE School of Management, New Delhi, jointly organized the Intrapreneurship Development training programme. Intrapreneurship is a newly coined word, meaning an enterprise entity within a corporate business structure, which, in all other sense, means the same as the entrepreneurship.

Dr Naresh Kumar of HRDC, in his inaugural speech, underlined the importance of ‘Industrial’ aspect of CSIR’s charter and that CSIR would do all that it would take to keep pace with the emerging business culture and promote it. Dr S N Sharma of HRDC mentioned that CSIR, indeed, is evolving a policy and had already issued an Office Memorandum to all the CSIR laboratories to initiate incubation centres as part of development activity.

There were a total of twenty-two participants from various CSIR laboratories. The participants were divided into six groups to promote interaction and enable effective collective learning. The six days of training programme contained a series of lectures by management experts, Prof A K Puri, Dr D K Batra, Dr Ravi Kumar, Dr Anita Lal, and Dr Vivek Kumar who were faculties of the FORE School of management. Several case studies were analyzed and discussed. A good example is the case of Dr Amar Bose whose product ‘Bose’ speaker/amplifier system is one of the most admired one in the world, because Dr Bose was then at MIT, USA, when he had launched his enterprise. The series of lectures were educative in characterizing the entrepreneur, how important innovation is, the need for market research, understanding of financial aspects, etc. Mrs. Sasikala G R Murthy (KTMD) led the best team for collective learning and time management, as adjudged by Dr Anita Lal.

At the end, the groups were required to present their dream projects on Intrepreneurship. The dream project presentations on ‘Selaero Flight Systems, Pvt. Ltd, product - a flexible personal aircraft’ by Dr S Selvarajan (C-CADD) et al and GAKS Aerospace Pvt Ltd, product-customized composite aircraft components by Mr Ramasamy Setty (ACD) et al were adjudged as the first and second best proposals respectively by Dr S N Sharma and Prof A K Puri.

In participants’ unanimous view, the laboratories would do well to embrace on CSIR’s initiative in the formation of incubation centers for ‘Intrapreneurs’, because it would benefit growth of not only the laboratories but also their employees who have entrepreneurship potential.

The abbreviation of National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIST) has been changed to (NIIST) and Industrial Toxicology Research Centre (ITRC) has been renamed as Indian Institute of Toxicology Research (IITR).

Mr M Subba Rao, founding Head of Advanced Composites Division (ACD), retired on superannuation on 31 December 2007.As a long-standing deputy and a close colleague of his for over two decades, I consider it my privilege to be writing this note recalling his contributions.

The ushering in of co-curing / co-bonding fabrication technology for Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) airframe structural components development had a tremendous impact on the Tejas (Light Combat Aircraft - LCA) programme. Mr Subba Rao’s contributions to this are immense and are nationally and internationally recognized.

His tryst with composites technology began in the Structures Division. As a scientist there, he played a key role in the development of CFRP rudder for the Dornier (DO-228) aircraft - a very successful collaborative venture with DLR, Germany.Spurred by this success he moved on to develop the country’s first CFRP replacement rudder for MiG-21 aircraft, working in tandem with HAL-Nasik. Later, when the Tejas programme got going, Mr. Subba Rao took the challenge of making many airframe structural components in CFRP.The design and development of CFRP co-cured fin stand out here. He took the responsibility for the development of nearly fifty complex centre fuselage components with CFRP for the PV series of Tejas aircrafts. This brought crowning glory to the nascent ACD, which he has headed most effectively since its formation in 1997. Other accolades followed. These include the Centre of Excellence in Composites Structural Technology (ACECOST-AR&DB), Repair Technology Programme (IAF-11BRD Nasik) and Tejas Limited Series Production (LSP-HAL).

More recently, taking advantage of the National Programme on Smart Materials (NPSM), Mr Subba Rao initiated important activities at ACD concerning different aspects of smart materials usage in aircraft structures. He also established a programme on Structrual Health Monitoring (SHM). He has nurtured highly qualified bright youngsters to manage these efforts.

Coming to NAL’s own SARAS aircraft programme, Mr Subba Rao’s contributions are unique. Armed with the Tejas experience, he pushed for the extensive use of CFRP in SARAS airframe. He lead the group that developed CFRP control surface elements and has now proposed to make the wing also in CFRP – using a novel Vacuum Enhanced Resin Infiltration Technology (VERITy) process - for the production standard (PS) version of the aircraft.

Mr Subba Rao is a duty conscious disciplinarian. He loves challenges and has indefatigable energy. Execution of critical projects in advanced composites technology and related areas to fruition is his forte. His contributions to indigenous development of autoclaves and revamping of imported autoclaves have been other noteworthy facets of his long and distinguished career.

I wish him and his family great joy, satisfaction and fulfillment in the years to come.

A high level delegation from Quebec, Canada were at NAL on 8 January 2008 for a follow up meeting. Dr J J Issac welcomed the delegation. Mr Carlos Trindade, Director, Special Projects, Consortium for Research Innovation in Aerospace in Quebec made a brief presentation and Dr Fassi Kafyeke, Senior Engineering Advisor, Director, Strategic Technology, Bombardier Aerospace, spoke on Aerodynamic Design of Improved Winglets for the Bombardier CRJ-900LR Regional Jet.

The discussions between the two teams proved very fruitful in strengthening the relationship and identifying projects for joint venture partnership.

Bangalore Integrated System Solutions Private Limited (BiSS), Bangalore has entered into MoU with NAL, Bangalore on 10 January 2008 for collaborative working in areas of aerospace. BiSS is a leading manufacturer and exporter of testing machines like desktop fatigue testing machine, servo-controlled hydraulic test systems, controllers for old UTM, shake table and shock absorbers testing machines. While expressing the views, Dr Sunder, Director, BiSS judged that execution of MoU with NAL is a matter of pleasure and not a pressure.

A Workshop on State of the Art Transonic Flutter Prediction was organized at NAL from 24 December 2007 to 4 January 2008. The workshop was inaugurat-ed by Dr A R Upadhya, Director, NAL. Dr Gautam Sen Gupta, Associate Technical Fellow, The Boeing Company, Seattle, USA, External Advisor/ Consultant of the programme conducted the workshop. The programme was sponsored by Department of Science and Technology (DST) under its Collaborative Projects with Scientists and Technologists of Indian Origin abroad programme (CP-STIO Programme). The main objective of the program-me was to develop expertise in the area of computational aero-elasticity in the transonic regime.

The topics discussed during the workshop were flutter prediction based on adjusted Doublet-Lattice method, as incorporated in MSC-NASTRAN, ZAERO, for example, any validation/comparison with wind tunnel or flight test data, development of CFD based methods-steady and unsteady, reduction of computing time in CFD-based prediction based on parallel processing and validation of CFD based methods.

The participation included leading experts and practitioners from major aerospace industry in India who got together to assess the State of the Art of Transonic Flutter Prediction. The session was highly inter-active, discussion oriented and finally culminated in generating inter institutional pro-grammes in this area of work.

Project BLIMP, has developed a Flight Test Bed (FTB) with duel controls for a split rudder surface, twin elevators and flaps to enable radio control of servos at two different frequencies (two independent receivers) to build redundancies, as well as to test autopilot systems for both radio control and autonomous operations. It is also intended to employ the FTB’s of this kind for the development of MAV configuration as well as its applications.

NAL Volley Ball Team has capped a sterling performance in the zonals of the tournament with an emphatic win in the finals of the 39th SSBM Tournament held at NEIST, Jorhat, Assam, from 18-20 December 2007.

The team has beaten all the other competing teams in straight sets through the league, semifinals and finals.

Mr Ragahvendra Swamy of Engineering Services Kodihalli, has bagged the "BEST SPIKER" and he has also been awarded a cash prize of Rs.5000 for being adjudged the "PLAYER OF THE TOURNAMENT". Mr Varatha-rajan of the Electrical Section, Kodihalli has bagged and the "BEST BOOSTER" award for this edition of the tournament.

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