Report of One Week TEQIP-III AICTE-ISTE Short Term Training Programme (STTP) on “Advances in Fluid Mechanics: Experimental and Computational”

The Department of Mechanical Engineering of Don Bosco College of Engineering (DBCE), Fatorda organized a one-week TEQIP-III AICTE-ISTE Short Term Training Programme (STTP) on “Advances in Fluid Mechanics: Experimental and Computational” from 8th to 12th January 2018. The STTP was inaugurated by Mr. Abhay Keny, proprietor of Sri Shantha Pumps in the presence of Rev. Fr. Kinley D’Cruz, Director DBCE; Dr. Neena Panandikar, Principal DBCE; Dr. Uday Dabade, HOD-Mechanical, Walchand College of Engineering (WCE), Sangli, Maharashtra; Prof. Ajit Salunke, HOD-Mechanical, DBCE; and Dr. Pravin Verekar, STTP  Coordinator, DBCE. Prof. Ajit Salunke, in his welcome address, gave overview of the various activities of Mechanical Engineering Department at DBCE. He emphasized close collaboration that the Department has with the industries. Dr. Pravin Verekar briefed about the various sessions at the STTP. Dr. Neena Panandikar in her talk highlighted the leading role the college is playing on the education front in Goa. Rev. Fr. Kinley D’Cruz during his address highlighted the importance of life-long learning and role such training programmes play. Chief guest Mr. Abhay Keny, in his keynote address, discussed the wide applications of fluid mechanics in various fields of engineering. Prof. Sachin Turi, Co-coordinator of the STTP, proposed vote of thanks at the inaugural function.

The one-week STTP provided a survey of the principal concepts and methods of experimental and computational fluid dynamics. It focused on imparting knowledge on recent trends and practices in fluid dynamics research. The STTP provided an opportunity for the participants from across India to interact with well-known researchers in the field of fluid mechanics.

In his session on “Overview of Fluid Mechanics”, Dr. Pravin Verekar of DBCE explained the principles of fluid statics, fluid kinematics and fluid dynamics using illustrations. Dr. Prasanna Nambiar of Don Bosco Institute of Technology, Mumbai in her session on “Devising Experiments in Fluid Mechanics” showed how simple experimental setups can be constructed to demonstrate concepts of viscosity, buoyancy, surface tension, cavitation, bulk modulus, hydrostatic forces, friction in pipe flows, etc. Dr. Shibu Clement of BITS Pilani, Goa campus in his talk on “Compressible Fluid Flow” explained continuum, Knudsen number, Mach number, Mach wave, shock wave, sonic boom, etc. Dr. B. S. Gawali of WCE in his sessions lectured on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and CFD case studies. Dr. Uday Dabade of WCE explained on how to prepare research project proposals and talked about sources of research funding. Prof. Ajit Salunke, Prof. Chetan Gaonkar, Prof. Ishan Kossambe and Prof. Tanay Rege conducted CFD practicals on various case studies using ANSYS.

Dr. Jaywant Arakeri of Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore in his session on “Some Basic Fluid Phenomena through Pictures” explained causes of flow, types of flow, importance of Reynolds number, boundary layer theory, boundary layer separation, bluff and streamlined body, vortex, wake, lift and drag, unsteady flows, dye visualizations, fish propulsion, etc. Prof. Arakeri in his talk on “Instability, Transition and Turbulence” explained different types of instabilities, transition to turbulence, scales of turbulence, convection heat transfer, tube convection, and high Rayleigh number convection.

Dr. Raghuraman Govardhan of IISc in his talk on “Experimental Techniques in Fluid Mechanics” explained different types of pitot tubes, hot wire anemometry, laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV) and particle image Velocimetry (PIV). Prof. Govardhan in his session on “Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI)” described collapse of Tacoma Narrows bridge, coupled vibration problem, flutter of aircraft engine blades, negative damping, negative inertia, force and phase excitation, switch in timing, wake modes, response of shocks to body motion, shock-structure interaction, response of flexible bodies, usefulness of FSI in energy extraction.

The STTP was organized in collaboration with Walchand College of Engineering (WCE), Sangli, Maharashtra and was sponsored by the Department of Science, Technology and Environment (DSTE) of the Government of Goa.