News and Events, NAL, Bangalore

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#IP 824 29June - 6 July 2008

Research Council Meeting

45th Research Council (NAL’s Apex body) meeting was held on 28 June 2008 at II Floor Conference Hall at New Annexe, Antariksh Bhavan, ISRO HQ, New BEL Road, Bangalore. The Council meeting was chaired by Dr G Madhavan Nair, Chairman, Space Commission and Secretary, Department of Space.

Prof B N Raghunandan, Chairman, Dept. of Aerospace Engg, IISc, Prof Job Kurian, Head, Aerospace Engg Department, IIT, Chennai, Member, Dr K Sudhakar, Prof & Head, Aerospace Engg Department, IIT Mumbai, Mr T Mohan Rao, Director, GTRE, Bangalore, Dr HS Maiti, Director, CGCRI, Kolkatta, Dr Gopal P Sinha, Director, CMERI, Durgapur, Prof. R. V. Perumal, Retired Director, ISRO and Distinguished Professor, Anna University, Chennai, Dr. Kota Harinarayana, Raja Ramanna Fellow, NAL, Bangalore , Mr. Yogesh Kumar, Business Consultant, NAL, Prof. R. Narasimha, Chairman, Engineering Mechanics Unit, JNCASR, Bangalore, Dr A R Upadhya, Director, NAL and Heads of Division of NAL attended the RC meeting.

Congratulations!! on your achievement - Promotion to Scientist G

Name of the Scientist		Division
Dr	Divakar C	MT
Dr	Dutt H N V	C-CADD
Dr	Giridhar A	MT (IFCAP)
Dr	Girija Gopalarathnam (Mrs)	FMCD
Dr	Mathur N B	EAD
Dr	Murali Mohan	MT (IFCAP)
Dr	Narasimhan S V	ALD
Dr	Ramamohan T R	C-MMACS
Dr	Shembharkar T R	PR
Dr	Shubha V (Ms)	MT
Dr	Sridhara Murthy S	CNSU
Dr	Suryanarayana G K	NTAF
Shri	Mruthunjayswamy K M	PR
Shri	Satish Chandra	STTD
Shri	William Grips V K	SED
Shri	Chandra Shekar C	ESD
Dr	Naganagoudar I R	ICAST
Shri	Nagarajan V	NTAF
Shri	Pourassamy A	SED
Smt	Kanakalatha P	MT (IFCAP)
Dr	Seshadri R	MT

#IP 823 23 - 29 June 2008

Report of the one-day seminar on “Piezo-Ceramic Materials, Actuators and Sensors”

A one-day seminar on Piezo-Ceramic Materials, Actuators and Sensors was held at the KTMD Seminar Hall, NAL on 21 June, 2008 to discuss the issues related to fabrication of piezo-ceramics based actuators/sensors and their application in aerospace and other areas. The seminar comprised of eleven presentations covering different aspects of piezo materials. The seminar began with a welcome address by Dr.A.R.Upadhya, Director, NAL who also chaired the first session. The first lecture was presented by Dr.K.Vijayaraju, Scientist, ADA on the “Applications of Piezo materials in Aero Structures” , followed by a talk on “Comparison of Actuator authority of Piezo electric and Electrostrictive Actuators” by Prof. S. Gopalakrishnan, IISc, Bangalore. The last presentation in that session was by Dr. D. Roy Mahapatra on “Modeling, analysis and design of Piezo-electric materials and devices for smart structural applications”

The theme of the second session was on the “Preparation of Piezo-ceramic materials and Fabrication of Actuators/sensors”. The presentations in the session included“Development of Piezo-Ceramic Materials and Devices at NAL” by Dr. P.K.Panda, “Enhancing the performance of Piezo Actuators with Mechanical amplification” by Dr. Anantha-suresh, “Novel Piezo Actuators for Large Displacements by Tape Casting Technique” by Dr. R. Hoppener, CEO,Haiku Tech and “Multi-Layered Ceramic Capacitors for Space Applications” by Dr.Madhusoodan Rao, ISRO. The session concluded with a talk on “Piezo Materials and Devices in Aerospace Applications”.

The final session included talks from NAL researchers on “Applications of Piezoelectric Materials and Devices in Aerospace Structure- Perspectives” by Dr. S. Raja, “Use of Piezoelectric Sensors/ actuators for active vibration control of Aircraft/Aerospace Structures” by Mrs. Shashikala Prakash, “High Frequency Applications of Piezo Actuators” by Dr.Ranjan Moodithaya and “Development of Smart Actuators for Boundary Layer Separation Control” by Dr. G. Ramesh. An interactive panel discussion was held at the end of the sessions where many useful suggestions and ideas emerged.

The seminar ended with a vote of thanks by the Head, Material Sciences; Mr.M.K.Sridhar thanking all the chairs, speakers and participants. A visit to the tape casting facility at NAL was organized at the end of the programme. Overall, the seminar was interesting, useful and informative which helped the scientists and researchers immensely.

P K Panda

Patents granted

Indian patent no 218304 was granted on June 13, 2008 to patent application ‘A process for the preparation of a novel thermosettings polymer useful for engineerins applications’ filed by RMVGK Rao and A Vanaja of Fibre Reinforced and Plastics Division.

Indian patent no 218310 was granted on June 13, 2008 to patent application ‘A device for the direct measurement of aerodynamic loads of structures’ filed by Verma R S, Ramesh R R and N B Mathur of Experimental Aerodynamics Division.

MoU/Agreement signed

MoU on was signed between NAL and Aparna Renewable Energy Sources Private Ltd, Bangalore for Collaborative investigation, monitoring and analysis for potential wind energy sites in India and export services on 2 June 2008.
Non-disclosure agreement was signed between NAL and Pratt and Whitney, Canada for Exchange of Proprietary Information on 23 June 2008.
Assignment deed agreement was signed among NAL, Mahindra Engineering Design and Development Company Limited/Mahindra Aerospace Private Limited for Transfer of activities of Mahindra Engineering Design and Development Company Limited, Bombay to Mahindra Aerospace Private Limited, Bangalore in May 2008.
Master service agreement was signed between NAL and Honeywell Technology Solutions Lab Private Ltd, Bangalore for Development of Systems For RTA on 7 April 2008.
Non-disclosure agreement was signed between NAL and SRF Limited, Chennai for Exchange Of Proprietary Information on 4 June 2008.

#IP 822 16 - 22 June 2008

First NAL Golden Jubilee Celebrations Conference - INCAST 2008

The International Conference on Aerospace Science and Technology (INCAST) is being held in Bangalore from June 26-28, 2008. The conference is organized as a part of Golden Jubilee celebration of the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), Bangalore. The main objective of the conference is to provide a platform for International R&D organization, Academia and Industrial agencies to present their latest achievements and explore the possibility of deriving synergies. This conference will also present (partially) the current aerospace activity in the country apart from showcasing the Aerospace Technologies of NAL.

The conference will be inaugurated by Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, Former President of India. Prof R Narasimha, Chairman, Engineering Mechnaics Unit, JNCAR, will release the Souvenir and Dr G Madhavan Nair, Chairman, ISRO and Secretary, Department of Space will preside over the function.

Over the last 5 decades NAL has made significant progress for the growth of aeronautics/ aerospace in the country, and has been the back bone of several National Aerospace programs; and has itself established as a major R & D center in aerospace in terms of knowledge base, facilities, and human resources.

The conference being held over 3 days has 6 plenary talks from internationally known experts in the areas. The plenary talks cover the topics of aircraft integration technologies, aero-acoustics, rotorcraft mechanics, and civil aircraft development apart from the technologies developed in NAL since its inception. There are 140 contributed papers to be presented in 32 technical sessions covering eight broad areas of aerospace viz., Aerodynamics, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Propulsion, Structures, Materials Science, Avionics, Flight mechanics and parallel computing. Each of the session has a subject specialist known internationally giving an invited talk covering the latest advances in the field. In addition to the technical sessions, there are 7 poster sessions having about 70 papers. Apart from the specialized areas, the conference has arranged an invited talk on ‘Global Technology Strategy’, an important topic in the current circumstances where we think of the whole world as Global village; and a workshop on ‘Aerodynamic Data base validation and update from Flight Data’ which is another topic of much relevance to the modern aerospace designers.

The conference has about 300 participants, including 25 participants from abroad representing major international aircraft company, R&D organizations and academia. The participants from abroad include those from USA, Germany, Canada, Israel, Netherlands, Israel and Brazil. The conference has about 14 invited speakers and several participants from the various aerospace organizations of the country. Also, an exhibition is organized to display industrial products in the areas of interest to the conference. The conference will provide a forum for discussion for further advancement of aerospace science & technology in the country to cater to the future requirements of national aerospace programs.

Dr. Sajeer Ahmed
Chairman, INCAST

Mr Sudesh Kumar Kashyap

Mr Sudesh Kumar Kashyap, FMCD, NAL has been awarded Ph.D degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the University of Mysore, Mysore for the thesis titled “Decision Fusion using Fuzzy Logic” under the guidance of Dr J R Raol, Former Head, FMCD, NAL.

#IP 821 10 - 15 June 2008

Taking Technology from Lab to People

On June 6 2008 at a function organized in the S R Valluri auditorium, NAL’s Golden Jubilee Celebrations (GJC) was flagged of by Prof S K Brahmachari, DG, CSIR. As a part of the GJC NAL has planned a number of S&T events including international/national conferences and seminars from June 2008 to May 2009.

The celebrations commenced with a melodious invocation by Jyothi and Kshama. Dr A R Upadhya, Director, NAL welcomed the august gathering of distinguished invitees, scientists, engineers and former directors. He said “Fifty years is a milestone in the life of any institution, not just counting years passed, because that will naturally happen to any institution with four strong walls and a leakproof roof, but taking into account outputs and contributions towards the mission, goal and objectives of institution.” In his speech he briefly traced NAL’s history stating that the 60s saw the foundations being laid, not just of the buildings, but of many R&D facilties and technologies, 70s saw a consolidation and growth, 80s was noteworthy for involvement in more number of practical applications including the first flight of NAL’s LCRA, 90s was epoch making in its own respect due to HANSA and the last decade saw a fruition of many efforts resulting in SARAS.

Prof S K Brahmachari, Director General, CSIR lit the traditional lamp and launched NAL’s GJC website. Prof Brahmachari in his lecture referred to NAL as a performing organisation. He further said it is time to relook at what we are doing, what can we do tomorrow? and how CSIR can remain relevant in future? He told the scientists to enter the third quarter with dreams and new ideas; reach to the 800 million Indians with technology focus on common man’s needs.

Dr S R Valluri, former Director, the great visionary who served NAL as its longest Director during its formative years presided over the inaugural function of the GJC. He released NAL’s Annual Report. In his presidential remark Dr Valluri said when he joined NAL on 23 Nov 1965, he had definite ideas about his responsibilities of being a trustee of the public goods. He complemented his successors for their outstanding job of building on the foundations laid by Dr Nilankanatan in a multitude of ways. He walked through the history of Indian aeronautics in the last 50 years.

The chief guests distributed NAL Outstanding Performance Awards, prizes to children of NAL employees for excelling in the field of sports, academics and extra–curricular activities and golden jubilee mementoes.

The function concluded with a vote of thanks proposed by Dr M R Nayak Adviser (M&A).

Ranjan and Shailaja

NAL GJC Website | Report of the Director | Annual Report Cover page

NAL Foundation Day lectures

The Torrid Journey of a Giant Autoclave Shell

As a part of building a state-of-the-art autoclave complex, NAL had placed an order on M/s Unique Chemoplant equipment, Mumbai for the manufacture of a 5 m diameter x 13 m long autoclave shell of volume 200m3. It took nearly 2 years for the firm to manufacture the shell. Special steels including forgings were imported, intricately machined and assembled to meet the stringent specifications. M/s Lloyd’s were the inspecting agency for the vessel. After the hydro test, the shell was transported on a long trailer (approximately 60 ft) leaving Mumbai on 5th April 2008. The route from Mumbai to NAL was initially surveyed by the transport contractor responsible for transporting the vessel. Entry to Karnataka was at Zalki (near Bijapur) towards the end of April 2008. The trailer reached the outskirts of Bangalore in the last week of May 2008, via the Mumbai - Bangalore highway i.e. from the northwest direction. The total height with the shell on the trailer being 7.25m, at several places the welcome arches had to be removed and re-fixed. The final journey from outskirts of Bangalore was beset with innumerable obstacles in the form of over bridges, flyovers and skywalks. Therefore it had to travel all the way down to the south of Bangalore on the outer ring road making a circuitous journey and finally enter the old airport road from the easterly direction i.e. via Marathahalli. This circuitous journey in the ring road took 3 long weeks. This was mainly because of the overhead electrical lines. These lines had to be deactivated at several places and arches had to be removed and re-fixed.

The NAL team worked jointly with the transport contractor. It was a stupendous task for the joint team to co-ordinate with the police and BESCOM authorities to move the vessel from place to place only during the nights, taking utmost care not to interrupt the busy Bangalore traffic. Finally when the last arch near the old airport was dismantled to pave the way for the autoclave shell in the wee hours of 8th June 2008 the last hurdle in the ‘horrendous’ journey had been successfully negotiated. The giant shell majestically grazed past the dismantled arch and entered the NAL campus at 4 A.M.

There were varied remarks / exclamations by different onlookers. A police official was heard explaining to his junior that it was a large satellite related equipment. A press man reported in a local daily that it was an aluminum reactor vessel being transported into Bangalore. Several onlookers were simply stunned by the sheer size of the vessel. When installed this will be the largest autoclave in the Indian aerospace sector for processing advanced composite airframes.

G.N.Dayananda & J.Ramaswamy Setty

The cost of maintaining an aircraft is currently around 15-35% of the direct cost of operating the aircraft. This cost over its lifetime can exceed the cost of acquisition of the new aircraft. The annual budget globally for maintenance of commercial aircraft is estimated to be around 62 billion dollars! It is hence not surprising that the aircraft and airline industries worldwide are looking towards bringing this cost down. Structural health monitoring (SHM) aims to achieve this by dispensing with periodic maintenance and bringing about a need-based maintenance paradigm.

A network meeting was held on May 22, 2008 at NAL to bring together researchers, practitioners, and experts to assess the state-of-the-art, identify gaps and evolve viable road maps towards implementation of SHM technologies in the Regional Transport Aircraft (RTA-70). The RTA-70 aims to enhance the connectivity within India, thereby helping in the economic development of the regions. Cost would be an important aspect of this aircraft, and keeping in view the potential cost benefits of SHM, it is proposed that SHM would be one of the core technologies built into the design of RTA-70.

The meeting, after beginning with an introduction to the RTA by Dr. Kota Harinarayana, discussed broadly four themes: aircraft requirements, SHM hardware, software for SHM, and Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM). Participants from NAL, CADES, ADA, IISc, CGCRI Kolkata, IIT Chennai, NML Jamshedpur, CSIO Chandigarh and CEERI Pilani spoke on the maintenance issues, inspection requirements and the various sensing and inspection options available. Dr. S. Nair, CTO of NeST Technologies, Cochin presented their successful experience in packaging and marketing fibre optic technologies, some of which were developed in research labs such as CGCRI. Dr. Gandhe of Satyam spoke about wireless sensors that could be employed in SHM systems.

Diagnostic and prognostic tools form a vital aspect of an SHM system. It is also critical that the possibility of false alarms is minimized if not totally eliminated. Hence the need to develop robust tools that are insensitive to any failures, uncertainties or randomness. Speakers from IISc, R&D Establishment (Engrs) Pune and NAL offered a glimpse of the tools, algorithms and methods that could be employed.

Finally, there were presentations from Honeywell India and GM India Science Labs, on IVHM, which is an overarching aspect that carries SHM in its fold. The need to design an SHM system that is capable of integrating seamlessly with existing IVHM systems was stressed.

Thus, during the course of the day, SHM technologies were examined and analyzed from all possible angles. It was an enriching interaction with more than 20 speakers offering their thoughts, views and expertise. In the final analysis, one could conclude that the technology readiness level of each aspect of SHM is fairly high. However, the SHM system as a whole and its elements need definition and detailing keeping in view the RTA requirements.

The second meeting/workshop of an international network project entitled “Seismic Hazard in Asia” was organized at C-MMACS during March 31 – April 11, 2008.

The workshop was inaugurated by Dr A R Upadhya, Director, National Aerospace Laboratory and also the Scientist-in-Charge, C-MMACS. Dr Ramamohan welcomed the delegates to C-MMACS and gave a brief history of C-MMACS. Dr Parvez presented the origin of the network project, the progress and the importance of such a network in the Asian region which is under high seismic threat. The geological systems starting from Hindukush to Andaman and Nicobar through the Himalayas is quite complex and covers many political and national boundaries. He also welcomed three new members in the network each from Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines in the network. Dr A R Upadhya, Director, NAL presided over the inaugural function and explained about the seismological complexity of the region, the past catastrophic events which occurred in Asian region and also emphasized the importance of working together and integrating the findings from each country in order to mitigate the impact of such catastrophe. Dr Fabio Romanelli (University of Trieste, Italy) welcomed the delegates on behalf of Prof. G F Panza and mentioned about the ongoing network project in North Africa and Latin America.

The workshop ended on March 11, 2008 in the valedictory function organized at C-MMACS.

Extension of service for Mr D V Venkatasubramanyam

Congratulations to our colleague D V Venkatasubramanyam, Scientist G, Head, STTD & FRP Division, for extension in service for a period of two years beyond 31.5.08.