Information Pasteboard
Weekly reports of meetings at NAL, snippets of R&D activity, conference announcements and other features of popular interest
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News and Events #IP 892, 26 Oct - 1 Nov 2009 A major step forward in enabling high speed airbreathing propulsion R&D in India High Mach number airbreathing propulsion is an area of research & development vital to India’s strategic needs. Propulsion is the most important pacing technology for the high speeds at which advanced aerospace vehicles such as, Access-to-Space Vehicles, Trans-atmospheric Vehicles and Missiles are to fly. From performance considerations, high-speed aerospace vehicles that fly at Mach numbers greater than 3 (speeds greater than 3 times the speed of sound) need to necessarily employ advanced airbreathing propulsion systems such as, ramjets, supersonic combustion ramjets (scramjets) and their complex derivative-the dual-mode ramjet/scramjet. Such critical engine technologies are closely guarded abroad. The National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), Bangalore have active R&D programmes for the development of advanced high-speed combustors for the High Speed Flight Technology Demonstrators of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram and the Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad. To carry out the appropriate full-scale ground tests, a High-Speed Combustor Test Facility has been set-up at the Propulsion Division, CSIR-NAL, Nilakantan Wind Tunnel Centre, Bangalore with joint funding from ISRO, DRDO and CSIR. This versatile test facility was inaugurated on Wednesday 28th October by Dr.G. Madhavan Nair, Chairman, ISRO and Chairman, Research Council, NAL. Dr. Madhavan Nair in his address complimented NAL for setting up such a complex test facility, which will allow the indigenous development of the critical advanced subsonic/supersonic combustor technologies for India’s futuristic high Mach number propulsion systems. He stressed that a comprehensive design data base should be quickly built up by carrying out extensive testing which, from now on, is possible in India. Dr. AR Upadhya, Director, NAL in his opening remarks said that ‘Supersonic Combustion’ is a thrust area activity of NAL and that, in fact, it was in the early nineties that this activity had been initiated in NAL jointly with DRDL by the then DRDL Director, Dr Abdul Kalam and the then NAL Director, Professor Roddam Narasimha. This test facility can also be employed to carry out full-scale afterburner developmental tests for the aero-engine gas turbines being developed by the Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE), Bangalore, which has already funded a related programme.
Dr. Madhavan Nair initiating the inaugural test run of the Facility
Typical kerosene/hydrogen supersonic flame showing the shock diamonds Dr G Madhavan Nair’s remarks in NAL Visitors Book: I am really impressed with the sophisticated facility established which can meet the R&D efforts in airbreathing propulsion. I can see the mammoth effort behind the realization of the facility from concept step onwards. My heartiest congratulations to all the team members. Please continue the good work, sucess will be yours.
#IP 891, 19 - 25 Oct 2009
#IP 890, 12 - 18 Oct 2009 Mr L Rangaraj, Scientist, Materials Science Division, National Aerospace Laboratories has been awarded Ph.D degree from the Faculty of Engineering of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore for the thesis titled “Reactive Hot pressing of ZrB2-based Ultra-High Temperature Ceramic Composites”. Congratulations Mr Babu Rajan!! Mr Babu Rajan, NTAF, NAL has won two prizes in National Scientific Photography contest conducted by Light and Shades of Science, New Delhi. He has got First Prize in Science in Close-Up category and Second prize in Science in Action category.
#IP 889, 5 - 11 Oct 2009 Once again it’s time to play with miniature aircraft and planes. The amazing wonder of the airspace with tiny aircraft is awesome. Aerofest, which should now be quite familiar to NAL family, continued its journey. Its next stop was at Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT). Actually, this stop should have come much earlier when airshow on Malpe beach was arranged in 2008. But we had to make a detour to fit the needs of MIT. The exhibition team led by Mr C. V. Giri Raj of KTMD left by road on 29th carrying with them NAL exhibits. By 30th, the exhibition was set up in the quadrangle of MIT’s main building. NIT-K Surthkal exhibited their unmanned aerial vehicle while MIT showcased their Formula 1 Student edition and an equipment to derive water from atmospheric moisture. Talking about moisture, there was plenty in the air and on the ground. It rained all through. But NAL team persisted with it and so did exhibition visitor from MIT and surrounding engineering colleges that included K V G College of Engineering, Sullia; NMA Institute of Technology, NITTE; Canara Engineering College, Bantwal and St. Joseph Engineering College, Mangalore. The three day festival jointly organized by NAL and Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal was inaugurated by Manipal University Registrar Dr G K Prabhu at MIT Campus on 1 October 2009. The Director of MIT Brig. (Dr.) Somnath Mishra and the Joint Director Dr R S Aithal who were present on the occasion stressed on the need for such Aerofests with MIT being a part of it. The exhibits displayed included composite parts and smart materials, aero-elastic models, wind tunnel models, radomes, scaled models of HANSA, SARAS, NM 5, RTA-70, wind turbine model, a working 4 core Flosolver, wankle engines, foil bearing, fatigue testing display model, VHRR mirrors, model of BLIMP and MAV flying displays. The exhibition was indeed a knowledge Centre as each model exhibited was instructed as though it was new invention On 2nd October, one day workshop was held for the benefit of MIT students and other engineering colleges. Nearly 400 students participated in the workshop. We started the proceedings with two lectures, one by me on how things fly and the other by Dr T. N. Venkatesh, Flosolver Division, on parallel computing with emphasis on meteorology. This was followed by formal inauguration. Dr R S Aithal, Joint Director MIT, welcomed the gathering while Brig. (Dr.) Somnath Mishra, Director MIT, addressed the students. Dr. M. R. Nayak, Advisor, M&A, gave an overview of the programme. He said that the programme had started on the auspicious Gandhi Jayanthi day. He recalled his early days and said that MIT was the place where his career was launched. He also remembered contributions of T. M. A. Pai who created the whole university town of Manipal. Dr. Upadhya spoke next and also fondly recalled his early life in and around Alevoor village near Manipal and said that it had indeed been a long journey to the present directorship of NAL from that small place. He spoke on NAL’s achievements and gave an overview of its activities, from its inception in 1959 till date. Prof. A M Chincholkar, coordinator of Aerofest from MIT side, rendered vote of thanks. He was very happy that NAL had taken this step to come to their doorstep for the benefit of their students braving bad weather and pathetic road conditions - another reason why one should take up aviation! The technical talks resumed with a presentation on composites by Mr. Ravikumar of ACD who dealt with various techniques, technologies and products.Dr. G. K. Suryanarayana spoke on wind tunnel testing dealing with several interesting and challenging problems. Dr. C. M. Manjunath, coordinator for Structural Integrity spoke on life extenstion of aircraft. He discussed the need and methodology and covered the major contributions of NAL in this direction. Dr. B. R. Pai, former director and chief architect of Malpe airshow in 2008 spoke on aerosports. He emphasized the need for flying experience and shared his own hands-on adventures with small flying machines. Dr. Arun Kumar of ATF spoke on satellite testing illustrated with several pictures of tests conducted at NAL. Mr. C. M. Ananda spoke on initiatives in avionics and dealt with programmes at NAL from early days to present and future directions. Mr. Roshan Anthony spoke on the MAV activities of NAL. It was unfortunate that bad weather prevented demonstration of these little flying wonders. In the end, Dr. Nayak did a fine job of summarizing the whole days proceedings – a difficult task indeed. The long and hard day ended with prizes being distributed to winners of Aero Quiz that was held a week before. I learnt later that day that Mr. Shashi Tharoor had remarked that one should work on Gandhi Jayanthi rather than celebrate it as a holiday. Looking back, I felt that we were ahead of Mr. Tharoor. We had actually implemented his thought. Nod only did we do a lot of work, we also shared our knowledge with young minds that day. Nothing can be more satisfying than that. I must particularly thank all the scientists who travelled over night by bus on bouncy roads and delivered their lectures with due care. Many of them left that very night making it two sleepless nights in a row. On the 3rd the exhibition continued in spite of rain. It concluded with a flight demonstration of MAVs and a paper plane contest for students. Totally 32 students participated from Manipal and Udupi including 2 students from farther Sagar – Shimoga. The whole event was given a wide publicity. Many thanks to all those who contributed, particularly the youngsters. The MAV team consisted of Mr Roshan Anthony, Mr Suraj, Mr Varun, Mr Samuel Vivek Grips, Mr Vikram and the rest of the exhibition team consisted of Mr Satish, Mr Balakrishnan, Mr Arul Paligan, Mr Rajendra Prakash, Mr K S Venkatesh, Mr Anand Raj and Mr Rajendra. In the end, MITians rejoiced with pride and NAL proved their technical prowess in a big way. Next stop is scheduled for Belgaum on 28 October 2009. Vidyadhar Y. Mudkavi #IP 888, 28 Sep - 4 Oct 2009 'Respect towards a language shouldn't connote disrespect and severance from the other' so stated Dr Manju Dhoundiyal in her speech as Chief Guest in the Hindi Day function on 14 September 2009. 'We promote our children to stutter in English for one is considered pompous and elite speaking English. Should we really do so at the cost of our languages?' she was visibly emotional trying to control herself. Dr Poornima Narayan, Head, ICAST presented Keynote Lecture on 'Role of E-resources for dissemination of S&T information'. "The formidable task (of technical lecture in Hindi) looked frivolous" Dr Upadhya, Director, NAL aptly congratulated her commendable talk. He asserted in his presidential address that one should learn as many languages to comprehend new literature and new cultures to build up bastion of linguistic equilibrium. He presented the Best OL Division and Section Awards to the heads of Material Science Division and Finance and Accounts Section respectively for the year 2008-09. Besides, around 125 prizes were presented to the individuals who excelled in usage of Hindi in official work and winners of various competitions. Smt Rama Mahadev, Sr COA welcomed the congregation; followed by progress report on Hindi activities by Dr PSR Murthy, Sr Hindi Officer. The function concluded with vote of thanks proposed by Smt Jayashree PG, Hindi Officer. Hindi Day Celebrations (an annual festival in any central government organization) featured more than a dozen events in NAL commencing from 26 August 2009. Employees were offered special incentives for maximum usage of Hindi in official work during August 2009 (termed as Hindi Maah), and some for use of Hindi in S&T field as well (creation of NAL Hindi Website, Pay-slip and Video show in Hindi). Dr PSR Murthy
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Dr A R Upadhya, Director, NAL, has been elected Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) in recognition for his distinguished contributions to Engineering. His Fellowship will become effective from 1 January 2010. 
