Vol.

1, Issue 1, July 2015

ME R&D
BRIEFS

A Newsletter of
Mechanical Engineering Department, IIT Bombay

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology Bombay

table of

CONTents

part I

Industry Research Related Papers

07

Efficient Slicing of Silicon Ingots by wire-EDM

process for Photovoltaic Application Ganesh Dongre,
Ramesh K. Singh, Suhas S. Joshi
09

Modelling flow and work hardening behaviour of

cold worked Zr2.5Nb pressure tube material in the
temperature range of 30600C A.K. Dureja, S.K. Sinha,
D.N. Pawaskar, P. Seshu, J.K. Chakravartty, R.K. Sinha 13

Part II

Updates of Experimental Research

Estimation of adiabatic wall temperature with

impinging flame jets Vijaykumar Hindasageri,
R.P. Vedula, and S.V. Prabhu 17

Burn Rate Characterization of Iso-propyl Nitrate

A Neglected Monopropellant Anirudha Ambekar,
Sheshadri Sreedhara, and Arindrajit Chowdhury

15

19

Part III

Latest from simulation results

and theoretical works 21

Solution of Burnett equations for flow in

microchannel and microtube Narendra Singh,
Abhimanyu Gavasane, Nishanth Dongari, Amit Agrawal

23

Numerical Study of Interface-Dynamics for a

Liquid Jet Injected Upwards into another Liquid
Absar M. Lakdawala, Vinesh H. Gada and Atul Sharma

25

ME R&D BRIEFS Vol. 1, Issue 1, July 2015

DIRECTOR, IIT BOMBAY

FOREWORD

I am very happy to note this initiative of the Mechanical

Engineering Department in bringing out a Department R&D
Briefs. The R&D Brief is intended to disseminate the ongoing
research work in the oldest department at the Institute to
a wider audience. Though the work presented in the R&D
Briefs is available in entirety in the form of research papers,
the abridged versions would provide a quick and focused
view to researchers in the domain. At the same time, the
briefs would provide short and lucid account of the R&D
in the department to students, industry and community at
large. I expect that the regular readers of the R&D Briefs will
experience a steady rise in the quality of the research being
undertaken in the department. I wish the faculty and researchers in the department success in this endeavour.

Prof. Devang Khakhar,

Director, IIT Bombay

HEAD, ME, IIT BOMBAY

FOREWORD

It gives me immense pleasure to present to you the inaugural

edition of R&D Briefs of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The Department of Mechanical Engineering at IIT
Bombay has a rich history since its establishment along with
the founding of the Institute in 1958. Through the decades,
several important scientific and technical contributions have
found their origins among the work originating from the
department. Today, the research program at the Mechanical
Engineering Department is burgeoning under the direction
of 50 faculty members and above 200 PhD research scholars.
The department boasts of numerous publications in reputed
scientific journals and research grants worth several million rupees from government and industrial sponsors. The
main aim of this R&D Brief is to regularly showcase selected
research publications and other associated endeavors to a
wider audience. I take this opportunity to congratulate the
Editors of the R&D Briefs, and all the faculty and researchers in the department for their phenomenal work and wish
them all the very best for future research. I am sure that the
quality of publications presented succinctly in this newsletter will only grow exponentially with time.

Prof. Suhas S Joshi

Head of Department, ME

Part I

INDUSTRY
RESEARCH
RELATED
PAPERS

ME R&D BRIEFS Vol. 1, Issue 1, July 2015

Efficient Slicing of Silicon

Ingots by wire-EDM process
for Photovoltaic Application
Ganesh Dongre, Ramesh K. Singh, Suhas S. Joshi

Introduction
Innumerable research groups all over the world are working
on enhancing the productivity of silicon wafer manufacturing and specially on slicing of silicon wafers from ingots. At
present, the conventional methods like ID-saw and abrasive
wire saw provide the minimum wafer thickness of 250-300
m and a kerf loss of 35-40%. However, this work proposes
use of wire-EDM process as a potential alternative for slicing
methods, as the process has not been exploited to realize its
full potential. This work therefore focuses on understanding
the potential of wire-EDM process in silicon wafer slicing
while looking into the physics of the slicing process and surface generation.

Objectives

To evaluate capability of wire-EDM process in slicing of

ultra-thin wafers with minimum kerf loss.

To model mechanism of silicon ingot slicing using wireEDM through process characterization.

To investigate the effect of wire-EDM process on physi-

cal, dimensional, topographical and subsurface aspects

of the sliced wafers.

To optimize the silicon ingot slicing process to maxi-

mize the slicing speed and to minimize the kerf loss and
surface roughness.

Methodology
To emulate the real life working conditions, this work involved extensive experimentation on 3 and 6 size silicon
ingots. Three productivity measures of the process: slicing
speed, kerf loss and quality of the surface generated, have
been evaluated throughout these experiments.
ME R&D BRIEFS Vol. 1, Issue 1, July 2015

INDUSTRY RESEARCH RELATED PAPERS

(a)

It was evident from surface topography and V-I characteristics of the process that melting and evaporation are the
dominant material removal mechanisms in wire-EDM of
silicon ingots. A RSM based optimization of the process leads
to 40-50% increase in slicing rate with 20% reduction in kerf
loss over the conventional slicing methods (Figure 1). At the
same time, in-depth characterization of newly generated
silicon wafers revealed that the changes in crystallinity of
silicon, thermal/subsurface damage, and wire material contamination on silicon wafer surfaces have not been observed
(Figure 2). Further, the experiments to achieve stable minimum wafer thickness have shown that ultra-thin wafers of
size 125-150 m thickness with kerf width of 50 m was slices
by using ultra-thin wires of 40 m diameter.

250

0.8

0.6

0.2

50

SLICING PROCESS

Wire-EDM

300%

150

100

Wire saw

200-

200

0.4

Key Findings

(B)

300

Kerf width (m)

Slicing speed (mm/min)

1.2

Wire saw

120 m dia. Wire

100 m dia. Wire

80 m dia. Wire

60 m dia. Wire

40 m dia. Wire

Slicing Method

FigURE 1 (a) Comparative evaluation of slicing speed by wire-saw and wire-EDM process;
(b) Comparative evaluation of kerf width by wire-saw and wire-EDM process [1]

(a)

Relevance/Significance
It is concluded that wire-EDM is truly an alternative to the
existing wire-saw processes for slicing of silicon ingots, provided that the methodology developed in the present work is
suitably scaled up.

(B)

10

11

(c)

(D)
For more details see:

Dongre Ganesh, R.K. Singh, Suhas

S. Joshi, 2012, Response Surface
Analysis of Slicing of Silicon
Ingots with Focus on Photovoltaic
Application, Journal of Machining Science and Technology, Taylor and Francis publisher, Vol. 16,
Issue 4, pp. 624-652.

Figure 2 (a) Surface machined by wire-saw; (b) Surface machined by wire-EDM;

(c) XRD plot for as cut sample;
(d) Raman spectroscopy plot for wire-EDM sliced wafer [2]

ME R&D BRIEFS Vol. 1, Issue 1, July 2015

Dongre, G. G., Vesvikar, C., Singh,

R., & Joshi, S. S. (2013). Modeling
of silicon ingot slicing process by
wire-electrical discharge machining. Proceedings of the Institution
of Mechanical Engineers, Part B:
Journal of Engineering Manufacture, 0954405413491241

INDUSTRY RESEARCH RELATED PAPERS

Modelling flow and work hardening

behaviour of cold worked Zr2.5Nb
pressure tube material in the
temperature range of 30600C
A.K. Dureja, S.K. Sinha, D.N. Pawaskar, P. Seshu, J.K. Chakravartty, R.K. Sinha

Introduction
In Indian Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (IPHWR) designs,
Zr-2.5Nb alloy pressure tube houses the fuel bundles and allows high pressure heavy water coolant to flow through it to
take away the heat of nuclear fission reaction taking place in
the fuel bundles. Pressure tubes are key class-1 components
of the primary heat transport system. During a postulated
design basis accident like Loss of Coolant Accident (LOCA)
with coincident Loss Of Emergency Core Cooling System
(LOECCS), it is expected that the horizontal pressure tube
would sag and balloon and come in contact with the calandria tube. Heavy water moderator (70C) which is in contact
with the calandria tube, would act as an emergency heat sink
12
as the moderator cooling system is assumed to be available.
In order to investigate the modes of deformation of pressure
tube - calandria tube assembly, under above mentioned postulated accident scenarios, material property data defining
the flow behaviour over a temperature range are required.

Problem Definition
In the present investigation, the tensile ow and work-hardening behaviour of a cold worked Zr-2.5Nb pressure tube
material of IPHWRs has been studied over the temperature
range of 30C to 600C. The stress strain data have been analysed in terms of stress-strain relations proposed by Hollomon, Voce and Ramberg-Osgood (RO). The relative efficacies
of these relations has been examined by fitting the appropriate equation to the experimentally obtained true stress true
strain data. The quality of fit of these empirical relations is
quantified using square root of co-efficient of determination
i.e. value (in %).

Objectives
The main objective of the present work includes investigation into developing empirical correlations defining material
flow behaviour valid across range of temperature.

ME R&D BRIEFS Vol. 1, Issue 1, July 2015

Methodology
In order to fulfill the above objective, a fairly large number
of tensile tests on Zr-2.5Nb alloy specimens were conducted.
A quadruple melted, 20% cold worked Zr-2.5Nb alloy pressure tube had been used for the present study. One hundred
and twenty sub-size tensile specimens of 25 mm gauge length
conforming to ASTM standards E8-04 and E21-05 were
machined. The tests were conducted on a universal testing
machine, fitted with a resistance type electric-furnace with
automatic temperature controller. Two to three specimens
were tested at each temperature and also at each strain rate
levels. The flow curves of the samples generated by carrying
out tensile tests at strain rate of 0.00033 s-1 and at temperatures from RT to 600C have been fitted using three constitutive relations.

13

FigURE 1 Hollomons, Voces & Ramberg-Osgood fit of

true-stress-true-strain data at 25 C test temperature

FigURE 2 Hollomons, Voces & Ramberg-Osgood fit of

true-stress-true-strain data at 600 C test temperature

Key findings
The fitted relationships to the experimentally obtained
stress-strain data are shown in Fig. 1 and 2 for 25 and 600C.
The above figures show that all the relations can capture the
flow behaviour of Zr-2.5Nb pressure tube material at low
temperature. At higher temperatures of the order of 600 C,
RO relation has been found to be fitting the stress- strain
data over the entire temperature range but with some deviations in the initial region. It has also been seen that RO relation predicts the UTS more accurately than other relations.
On the basis of observations made, it can be concluded that
the Voces relation should be used to simulate the stressstrain behaviour of Zr-2.5Nb material up to 300 C, Ramberg

INDUSTRY RESEARCH RELATED PAPERS

Osgood relation should be used between 300 C 500 C and

beyond 500 C, Hollomons relation should be used.

Relevance/Significance
Modeling flow behaviour of material is very important
aspect to predict the deformation behaviour of component
made of this material, especially during high temperature
and high stress conditions. Of late, finite element method
based numerical simulation tools have become very popular
for predicting deformations and failures. However, to have a
realistic simulation, robust and validated database of material constitutive equations are needed.

Part II

UPDATES OF
EXPERIMENTAL
RESEARCH

14

For more details see:

A.K. Dureja, S.K. Sinha, D.N.

Pawaskar, P. Seshu, J.K. Chakravartty, R.K. Sinha, Modelling flow
and work hardening behaviour
of cold worked Zr2.5Nb pressure
tube material in the temperature
range of 30600C, Nuclear Engineering and Design,
269 (2014) 5256

ME R&D BRIEFS Vol. 1, Issue 1, July 2015

INDUSTRY RESEARCH RELATED PAPERS

15

Estimation of adiabatic wall

temperature with impinging flame jets
Vijaykumar Hindasageri, R.P. Vedula, and S.V. Prabhu

Introduction
Heat transfer by flame jet impingement is extensively used in
several industrial and domestic applications such as melting
of metal billets in a closed heating furnace, glass processing,
domestic gas geysers and others.

Problem Definition
Most of the studies in literature report heat flux and wall
temperature, which are dimensional parameters making the
applicability of such results rather limited. The proper way
of presenting this data is in the form of Nusselt number and
effectiveness, which are easy to compute and non-dimensional engineering parameters.

16

Objectives

Propose a novel method to evaluate the adiabatic wall

temperature

Demonstrate the accuracy of the method over a wide

parameter range

Methodology
A hybrid analytical-numerical method is proposed to evaluate the adiabatic wall temperature by computing the steady
state adiabatic wall heat flux. The heat flux distribution on
the impingement plate is solely dependent on the wall temperature as per the fundamental expression below.

q = h (Taw Tw ) = k dT dz

(1)

The heat flux is estimated at wall temperature close to ambient by an initial transient method using IHCP technique
for semi-infinite method. This heat flux is then input into a
direct finite difference code to get an initial wall temperature
at steady state condition. For the adiabatic case, the heat flux
is much lower than that obtained from the IHCP technique.

ME R&D BRIEFS Vol. 1, Issue 1, July 2015

UPDATES OF EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH

17

Hence, this heat flux is corrected using above Eq. (1) as shown
in Eq. (2) below.

Burn Rate Characterization of

Iso-propyl Nitrate A Neglected
Monopropellant

= qinit
E1 F1
qaw1
k k
init

t,aw t,init

E1 = aw
Where,

and

T T
F 1 = e aw1
Te Tinit

(2)

Anirudha Ambekar, Sheshadri Sreedhara, and Arindrajit Chowdhury

Key findings
The adiabatic wall temperature estimated from the present
analytical-numerical method predicts within 10% of the experimentally measured adiabatic wall temperature as shown
in Fig. 1.

4
r/d

1200

1200

1000

1000

Taw (K)

Taw (K)

1400

800

600

400

400

4
r/d

Problem Definition
The burning rate for a given propellant is known to be a
function of the ambient pressure. The experimental data
regarding the burn rate variation of Iso-Propyl Nitrate (IPN)
as well as a simplified semi-analytical treatment for the prediction of the same are not available in literature.

800

600
0

The effect of ambient pressure on the burning rate of a

propellant is an essential input for designing a combustion
chamber.

z/d = 6; Re = 1400

z/d = 2; Re = 1400

18

Introduction

Objectives

To measure the linear burning rate of IPN strands for a

4
r/d

Experimentally measured
Heat flux sensor; Chander and Ray [20]
IHCP; Present method

wide range of ambient pressures

To develop a semi-empirical analysis for prediction of

the burning rate data.

Methodology

FigURE 1 Comparison of the adiabatic wall temperature with literature

Relevance/ Significance

For more details see:

Using this analytical-numerical method, the heat flux data

obtained from a heat flux sensor can be expressed in terms
of Nusselt number and effectiveness. The method can be applied to a wide range of conditions.

Vijaykumar Hindasageri,
R.P. Vedula, and S.V. Prabhu,
A Novel method of estimation
of adiabatic wall temperature
for impinging premixed flame
jets, International Journal of
Heat and Mass Transfer, 2014,
Vol. 77, pp. 185193.

ME R&D BRIEFS Vol. 1, Issue 1, July 2015

In the present methodology, the linear burning rate of a IPN

has been measured from atmospheric pressure (1 bar) to 60
bar, in a high pressure strand burner with an atmosphere of
air, using high-speed videography. Two separate semi-empirical models, based on pool combustion theory, were tested
against the experimental data. The burning rate was calculated by applying energy balance between the flame and the
liquid fuel. The first model postulates a purely bipropellant
combustion of the strands while the other considers a purely
monopropellant combustion process. Figure 1(a) is a photograph of the experimental setup, and Fig. 1(b) depicts a series
of frames showing the combustion process at atmospheric
pressure. Figure 1(c) shows the comparison between the experimental and predicted data.

UPDATES OF EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH

19

For more details see:

Anirudha Ambekar, Sheshadri

Sreedhara, and Arindrajit
Chowdhury, Burn Rate Characterization of Iso-propyl Nitrate
A Neglected Monopropellant,
Combustion and Flame, 2014, In
Press, DOI: 10.1016/j.combustflame.2014.09.002

IPN experiments with 21% O2

NM experimental results
IPN experiments with 14.8% O2
IPN monopropellant model
IPN bipropellant model
IPN rate law
NM rate law

1.8
1.6
1.4

Burn rate (mm/s)

(A)

Part III

1.2
1

0.8

20

0.6
0.4
0.2
0

(B)

10

20

30

40

Gauge pressure (bar)

50

60

(c)

FigURE 1 Schematic representation of a) bipropellant model, b) monopropellant model, and c) comparison of

experimental and analytical results.

Key findings

LATEST FROM
SIMULATION
RESULTS &
THEORETICAL
WORKS

The linear burning rate of IPN, found to be a function of the

pressure, was accurately predicted by the semi-empirical
model. The combustion process was found to be dominated
by monopropellant flame only beyond a pressure of 15 bar.

Relevance/Significance
The variation of the burning rate of IPN with ambient
pressure has been experimentally elucidated and validated
through a semi-empirical model.

ME R&D BRIEFS Vol. 1, Issue 1, July 2015

UPDATES OF EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH

21

Analytical Solution of Burnett

equations for flow in microchannel
and microtube
Narendra Singh, Abhimanyu Gavasane, Nishanth Dongari, Amit Agrawal

Introduction
Knudsen number (Kn) is used to characterize the flow in various regimes. Whereas the Navier-Stokes equations are applicable in the continuum regime (Kn << 1) and possibly in the
slip regime, they are not applicable in the transition regime
(Kn ~ 1). Higher order continuum equations have to be solved
for flow in the transition regime. The Burnett equations are
one such higher-order continuum equation. However, no
known analytical solution exists for these equations.

Problem Definition
The aim of this work is to derive the Burnett equations in
cylindrical coordinates in three-dimensional form and solve
it for flow in microchannel and microtube.

22

Objectives

To propose a novel solution methodology to solve the

Burnett equations (and possibly other partial differential equations).

To obtain analytical solution of the Burnett equations

for gas flowing in a microchannel or a micro-tube.

Methodology
An iterative scheme is proposed and employed to solve the
Burnett equations. In this method, lower order equation is
first solved for a given case. The various terms of the higher
order equation are evaluated numerically by substituting the
assumed solution into the higher-order equation. The terms
are normalized by the highest-order term in the equation.
This allows significant terms to be identified. The lower-order equation is modified to include these new terms. This
intermediate equation is again solved analytically and the
entire exercise is repeated. The above exercise is repeated
until all terms from the higher-order equations get added to
the intermediate equations (and therefore the intermediate

ME R&D BRIEFS Vol. 1, Issue 1, July 2015

LATEST FROM SIMULATION RESULTS & THEORETICAL WORKS

23

Numerical Study of Interface-Dynamics

for a Liquid Jet Injected Upwards into
another Liquid

200

Normalized Mass Flow Rate

150
Tisons Model
Knudsens Model
Beskok et al.
Present Solution (Cercignani)
Present Solution (Ewart et al.)

100

Absar M. Lakdawala, Vinesh H. Gada and Atul Sharma

50

Introduction

-50 -3
10

10

-2

10

-1

Kni

10

10

10

When a liquid is injected from an orifice into another immiscible liquid complex interface dynamics is observed. Dripping mode at low-, jetting at intermediate-, and transition
from 2D axisymmetric to 3D flow at larger injection velocity
have been reported. Unsteady fluid flow is classified into
various flow regimes: periodic, quasi-periodic and chaotic
flow; most of the available studies are for single as compared
to two phase flow. This is due to better numerical techniques
for characterization of single-phase flow as compared to the
presence of that for interface in a two-phase flow. Thus, there
is scope for improvement in characterizing the interface
and understanding the transition in interface dynamics of
two phase flow better. The present work is an attempt in
this direction for an axi-symmetric immiscible liquid-liquid
system.

and higher-order equations become identical) or there are no

remaining terms with a significant contribution.

Key findings
The analytical solution for flow in microtube obtained here
satisfies the full set of Burnett equations exactly up to Kn =
24 0.3. Further, the proposed solution satisfies the Burnett equations till Kn = 1.35 with an error lying within +/-1%.
The match of mass flow rates with experimental data has
been obtained for Kn 2.2, covering the entire continuum and
slip regimes along with a substantial part of the transition
regime (see figure).

Relevance/Significance
This is first analytical solution of the Burnett equations
for any configuration. These results are among the highest
Knudsen number for which an analytical solution has ever
been proposed.

Problem Definition
For more details see:

Singh, N., Gavasane, A., and

Agrawal, A., The Burnett equations in cylindrical coordinates
and their solution for flow in a
microtube, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 751, pp. 121-141, 2014;
Singh, N., Dongari, N., and
Agrawal, A., Analytical solution
of plane Poiseuille flow within
Burnett hydrodynamics, Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, Vol. 16,
pp. 403-412, 2014.

Figure 1 shows an axisymmetric computational domain

and boundary conditions for the physical problem considered in the present work. The figure shows an axi-symmetric
view of a stationary cylindrical tank of non-dimensional
length L and radius R2=5 filled-in with a stationary continuous fluid 1. Fluid 2 is injected vertically upwards from a circular hole (orifice) of non-dimensional radius R1=0.5 at the
bottom of the tank, with a fully-developed non-dimensional
velocity profile.

Objectives

Apply level set method for the first time to study jet dy-

namics, and demonstrate its capability to characterize

the unsteady interface dynamics for a better Computational Multi-Fluid Dynamics (CMFD) analysis.

To propose various regimes of unsteady interface dy-

namics - different from the way it is reported in the published literature - using the time signal of tip of the jet at
the axis of the axisymmetric liquid jet.

ME R&D BRIEFS Vol. 1, Issue 1, July 2015

LATEST FROM SIMULATION RESULTS & THEORETICAL WORKS

25

Methodology

Key Findings and

Relevance/Significance

In the present work, an in-house code based on a novel

Dual Grid Level Set Method (DGLSM) in 2D axi-symmetric
coordinate system is used. Six different combinations of the
dispersed and continuous fluids are subjected to various
injection velocities, resulting in a large variation in the viscosity-ratio and Weber number. For different values of the
parameters, a drop formation regime map is presented and
the effect of the flow transitions on the parameters characterizing the jet dynamics is studied. The effect of co-flowing
continuous fluid on the drop formation regime as well as the
jet-dynamics parameters is also presented.

From the temporal variation of jet length and instantaneous

interface, three drop formation regimes are proposed (Fig. 2).
There is a single frequency in the P-UD regime corresponding to that of the release of the same size of drop periodically.
In the QP-NUD regime, more than one (but fixed) drops are
released periodically and has two frequencies corresponding
to the release of drop of any size for primary and to that of
the same size for secondary frequency. Multiple frequencies
in the C-NUD regime corresponds to that of the drop of randomly varying sizes. Their effect on the mean value of jet
breakup length, detached drop diameter and drop formation
frequency is also studied. The effect of co-flowing continuous
fluid is found to stabilize the drop formation regime and increase the frequency of drop formation.
The present findings are relevant to a large variety of situations, in nature, technology and basic science; for example,
in nuclear fission, diesel engine technology, DNA sampling,
manufacturing, spray, agriculture irrigation, powder technology, ink jet printing and jet engine.

26

27

FigURE 1 Computational domain and boundary conditions for an axisymmetric liquid jet injected into
another immiscible liquid.

FigURE 2 Drop Formation regime for various weber

number and viscosity ratios. P-UD: Periodic Uniform
Drop; QP-NUD: quasi-periodic non-uniform drop; and
C-NUD: chaotic non-uniform drop.

For more details see:

Absar M. Lakdawala, Vinesh H.

Gada and Atul Sharma, A Dual
Grid Level Set Method based
Study of Interface-Dynamics for
a Liquid Jet Injected Upwards
into another Liquid, International
Journal of Multiphase Flow, Vol. 59,
pp. 206220, 2014.

ME R&D BRIEFS Vol. 1, Issue 1, July 2015

LATEST FROM SIMULATION RESULTS & THEORETICAL WORKS