Spatial Variation of Physico-Chemical and hydrological Parameters with land-use in Venkatapura Catchment,Karnataka

Social, economic and political development of a region is dependent on the health and quantity of the natural resources. Integrated approaches in the management of natural resources would ensure sustainability, which demands inventorying, mapping and monitoring of resources considering all components of an ecosystem. The monitoring of hydrological and catchment landscape of river resources have a vital role in the conservation and management of aquatic resources. This paper presents a case study Venkatapura river basin in Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka State, India based on stream hydrology and landuse analyses. The results revealed variations in dissolved oxygen and free carbon dioxide according to the flow nature of the water, and increased amount of phosphates and coliform contamination in streams closer to anthropogenic activities.

Friction and transfer layer formation in polymer-steel tribo-system: Role of surface texture and roughness parameters

In the present investigation, various kinds of surface textures were attained on the steel plates. Roughness of the textures was varied using various grinding or polishing methods. The surface textures were characterized in terms of roughness parameters using an optical profilometer. Then experiments were conducted using an inclined pin-on-plate sliding apparatus to identify the role of surface texture and its roughness parameters on coefficient of friction and transfer layer formation. In the experiments, a soft polymer (polypropylene) was used for the pin and hardened steel was used for the plate. Experiments were conducted at a sliding velocity of 2 minis in ambient conditions under both dry and lubricated conditions. The normal load was varied from 1 to 120 N during the tests. The morphologies of the worn surfaces of the pins and the formation of a transfer layer on the steel plate surfaces were observed using a scanning electron microscope. Based on the experimental results, it was observed that the transfer layer formation and the coefficient of friction along with its two components, namely adhesion and plowing, were controlled by the surface texture of the harder mating surfaces and were less dependent of surface roughness (R(a)) of the harder mating surfaces. The effect of surface texture on the friction was attributed to the variation of the plowing component of friction for different surfaces. Among the various surface roughness parameters studied, the mean slope of the profile, Delta(a), was found to most accurately characterize variations in the friction and wear behavior. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.