Hydrodynamic Study of Swirling Fluidized Bed and the Role of Distributor

The study aims to the hydrodynamic characteristics of swirling fluidized bed, using large particles (Geldart D-type) selected from locally available agricultural produce (coffee beans and black pepper). The important variables considered in the present study include percentage area of opening, angle of air injection and the percentage useful area of the distributor. A total of seven distributors have been designed and fabricated for a bed column of 300 mm, namely single row vane type distributors (15˚ and 20˚ vane angle), inclined hole type distributors (15˚ and 20˚ vane angle) and perforated plate distributors. The useful area of distributor of single row vane type, three now vane-type and inclined hole-type distributors are respectively 64%,91% and 94%. The hydrodynamic parameters considered in the present study include distributor pressure drop, air velocity, minimum fluidizing velocity, bed pressure drop, bed height and the bed behaviour. It has been observed that, in general, the distributor pressure drop decreases with an increase in the percentage area of opening, Further, and increase in the area of opening above 17% will not considerably reduce the distributor pressure drop. In the present study, for the distributor with an area of opening 17%, and corresponding to the maximum measured superficial velocity of 4.33 m/s, the distributor pressure drop obtained was 55.25mm of water. The study on the bed behavior revealed that, in a swirling fluidized bed, once swirl motion starts, the bed pressure drop increases with superficial velocity in the outer region and it decreases in the inner region. This means that, with higher superficial velocity, the air might get by-passed through the inner boundary of the bed (around the cone). So, depending on the process for which the bed is used, the maximum superficial velocity is to be limited to have an optimum bed performance.

Slot-Loaded Compact Microstrip Antenna for Dual-Frequency Operation

Dual frequency operation is achieved from a compact microstrip antenna by loading a pair of narrow slots close to its radiating edges. The two frequencies have parallel polarization planes and similar radiation characteristics. The ratio between the two operating frequencies can be tuned in the range (1.14-1. 24), which is much smaller than that of similar designs. The above excellent radiation characteristics are achieved along with an area reduction of - 75% compared to the standard rectangular patch

Efficient Transmitter/Receiver Architectures for High Performance Wireless Applications

The thesis focuses on efficient design methods and reconfiguration architectures suitable for higher performance wireless communication .The work presented in this thesis describes the development of compact,inexpensive and low power communication devices that are robust,testable and capable of handling multiple communication standards.A new multistandard Decimation Filter Design Toolbox is developed in MATLAB GUIDE environment.RNS based dual-mode decimation filters reconfigurable for WCDMA/WiMAX and WCDMA/WLANa standards are designed and implemented.It offers high speed operation with lesser area requirement and lower dynamic power dissipation.A novel sigma-delta based direct analog-to-residue converter that reduces the complexity of RNS conversion circuitry is presented.The performance of an OFDM communication system with a new RRNS-convolutional concatenated coding is analysed and improved BER performance is obtained under different channel conditions. Easily testable MAC units for filters are presented using Reed-Muller logic for realization.

Biochemical & Pharmacological evaluation of liver oils of selected deep sea sharks and chimaeras of the Indian EEZ

With a seacoast of 8,1 18 km, an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of 2 million square km, and with an area of about 30,000 square km under aquaculture, lndia produces close to six million tonnes of fish, over 4 per cent of the world fish production. While the marine waters upto 50m depth have been fully exploited, those beyond, remain unexplored. There is an ever increasing demand for fishery resources as food. The coastal fishery resources of the country are dwindling at a rapid pace and it becomes highly imperative that we search for alternate fishery resources for food. The option we have is to hunt for marine fishery resources. Studies pertaining to proximate composition, amino acid and fatty acid composition are essential to understand the nutraceutical values of these deep sea fishery resources. The present study was aimed to carry out proximate composition of deep sea fishery resources obtained during cruises onboard the FORV Sarise Sampada, to identify fishery resources which have appreciable lipid content and thereby analyse the bioactive potentials of marine lipids, to study the amino acid profile of these fishery resources, to understand the contents of SPA, MUFA and PUFA and to calculate the n3/n6 fatty acid contents. Though the presence of nutraceuticals was identified in the marine fishery resources their use as potential food resources deserve further investigation. So the study were carried out to calculate the hepatosomatic indices of sharks & chimaeras and conduct biochemical characterisation of liver oils of Apristurus indicus, Cenlrophorus scalprams, Centroselachus crepidater, Neoharriotta raleighana, and Harriotta pinnata obtained during cruises onboard the FORV Sugar Sampada.Therapeutic use of shark liver oil is evident from its use for centuries as a remedy to heal wounds and fight flu (Neil er al. 2006). Japanese seamen called it 'samedava' or "cure all". Shark liver oil is being promoted worldwide as a dietary supplement to boost the immune system, fight infections, to treat cancer and to lessen the side effects of conventional cancer treatment. These days more emphasis is laid on the nutritive benefits of shark liver oils especially on the omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids ( PUFAs) (Anandan er al. 2007) and alkylglycerols (AKGs) (Pugliese er al. I998) contained in them due to the high rise of inflammatory disorders such as arthritis, asthma and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Schizophrenia. So the present study also evaluate the pharmacological properties with respect to analgesic, anti-inflammatory, anti pyretic and anti-ulcer effects of four different liver oils of sharks belonging to the Indian EEZ and to identify the components of oil responsible for these activities.The analgesic and anti-inflammatory activities of liver oils from Neoharriotra raleighana (NR), Centrosymnus crepidater (CC), Apristurus indicus (AI), and Centrophorus sculpratus (CS) sharks caught from the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean were compared. The main objectives also include determination of the cholesterol lowering effects of liver oils of Neoharriotra raleighana (NR) and Centrophorus sculpratus (CS) on the high fat diet induced dyslipidemia and to compare the impact of four isolipidemic diets, on levels of serum diagnostic marker enzymes, on lipid profile of blood and liver and antioxidant status of heart in male Albino rats. And also to study the efficacy of Centrophorus sculpratus (CS) liver oil against Complete Freund’s Adjuvant-induced arthritis and to compare the anti-inflammatory activity of this oil with a traditionally used anti-inflammatory substance gingerol (oleoresin extracted from ginger.). The results of the present study indicated that both (Centrophorus sculpratus liver oils as well as gingerol extracts proved to be effective natural remedies against CFA-induced arthritis in Albino rats.

Coastal and ground water pollution in Kavaratti island, Lakshadweep sea

The tiniest Union territory of India, Lakshadweep, is an archipelago, with an area of 32 Sq. km. consisting of 12 atolls, three reefs and five submerged banks, lies between 8° and 12°30'N latitudes and 71° and 74" E longitudes. It is one of the most important and critical territories of India from economic and defence point of view. Specialised environment having typical geological set up, Lakshadweep is ecologically sensitive to even slight climatic or anthropogenic interference. Pollution of coastal seas, over exploitation and contamination of the fresh water sources are thus become great concerns to the existence of the island. Typical geological set up and interference cause threat to the ecology of the fragile environment and resources of the island as well as its resources. Marine pollution and ground water contamination are concerns in this regard. Even though attentions were made to assess the physico—chemical and bacteriological status of the marine and groundwater systems separately, an integrated approach has not been evolved. The present study with its broad objectives is attempted for an integrated assessment of microbiological, physicochemical and biological characteristics of the surrounding seawater and microbiological and physico—chemical characteristics of the ground water in Kavaratti island. The entire study has been organised in 4 chapters

Population Biology And Ecology Of Artemia From Salinas Of South East Coast Of India

This thesis deals with the population characteristics of Artemia and the effect of different environmental parameters on the different stages of Artemia in a salina at Tuticorin, south east coast of India. The present investigation was carried out from 1985 to I987. The study was initiated by undertaking a survey to find out suitable Artemia habitats along the south east coast of India and a perennial salina with an area of 0.25 ha was selected at Karapad (Tuticorin). Weekly samplings were made for two full calender years (1986-87) to collect the different stages of Artemia population as well as the different environmental parameters. The thesis comprises of the following sections: Introduction, materials and methods, systematics, biology and distribution of Artemia, results and discussion, summary and bibliography. The section on results and discussion gives the characteristics of Artemia population in the salina, the seasonal variations of different environmental parameters in the salina and their effects on different stages of Artemia population. Description of an experiment conducted to show the sudden changes of salinity on different stages of Artemia is also given as a separate section.

Structural and catalytic investigation of vanadia supported on ceria promoted with high surface area rice husk silica

Rice husk silica was utilized as the promoter of ceria for preparing supported vanadia catalysts. Effect of vanadium content was investigated with 2–10 wt.% V2O5 loading over the support. Structural characterization of the catalysts was done by various techniques like energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), BET surface area, thermal analysis (TGA/DTA), FT-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), UV–vis diffused reflectance spectroscopy (DR UV–vis), electron paramagnetic spectroscopy (EPR) and solid state magnetic resonance spectroscopies (29Si and 51V MASNMR). Catalytic activity was studied towards liquid-phase oxidation of benzene. Surface area of ceria enhanced upon rice husk silica promotion, thus makes dispersion of the active sites of vanadia easier. Highly dispersed vanadia was found for low V2O5 loading and formation of cerium orthovanadate (CeVO4) occurs as the loading increases. Spectroscopic investigation clearly confirms the formation of CeVO4 phase at higher loadings of V2O5. The oxidation activity increases with vanadia loading up to 8 wt.% V2O5, and further increase reduces the conversion rate. Selective formation of phenol can be attributed to the presence of highly dispersed active sites of vanadia over the support.

Customer perceptions of Banking Products and Services in Kerala with reference to Specific Customer Segments in the Urban Area

As of 1999. the state of Kerala has 3210 offices of scheduled commercial banks (SCBS). In all, there are 48 commercial banks operating in Kerala, which includes PSBs, OPBs, NPBS. FBs, and Gramin Banks. The urban areas give a complete picture of the competition in the present day banking scenario with the presence of all bank groups. Semi-urban areas of Kerala have 2196 and urban areas have 593 as on March 1995.“ The study focuses on the selected segments ofthe urban customers in Kerala which is capable of giving the finer aspects of variation in customer behaviour in the purchase of banking products and services. Considering the exhaustive nature of such an exercise, all the districts in the state have not been brought under the purview of the study. Instead. three districts with largest volume of business in terms of deposits, advances, and number of offices have been short listed as representative regions for a focused study. The study focuses on the retail customer segment and their perceptions on the various products or services offered to them. Non Resident Indians (NRIs), and Traders and Small—ScaIe Industries segments have also been included in the study with a view to obtain a comparative picture with respect to perception on customer satisfaction and service quality dimensions and bank choice behaviour. The research is hence confined to customer behaviour and the implications for possible strategies for segmentation within the retail segment customers