Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad

About: Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad is a education organization based out in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Control theory & Electric power system. The organization has 2475 authors who have published 5067 publications receiving 61891 citations. The organization is also known as: NIT Allahabad & Motilal Nehru Regional Engineering College.

Soil ecophysiological and microbiological indices of soil health: a study of coal mining site in Sonbhadra, Uttar Pradesh

Abstract: The present study involves the discovery of quality of soils associated with dump mines and native forest encompassing the Kakari mine, a coal mining site in Sonbhadra, to distinguish the effect of coal mining on associated soil ecosystem. Soil ecophysiological indicator of the site was analyzed in terms of floral diversity by method of quadrat analysis, which revealed that dumps were devoid of any floral community whereas the natural forest around the mines was enriched with a number of plant species. Importance value index (IVI) was calculated and with respect to their IVI index the tree species viz., Acacia mangium (23.17, 24.48 & 26.81) and Acacia catechu (20.34, 22.10 & 25.36) were found to be the most dominant species. Soil enzymatic and physico-chemical analysis were analyzed by standard method and the result emphasized that dump soils possess poor enzymatic activity and acidic pH due to the decomposition of waste material in dumps which eventually affects the microbial diversity of soil and its fertility. The plant growth promotion (PGP) and stress tolerance characteristics of bacterial isolates were further examined so that the potential isolates will be utilized further to reclaim and remediate soil property of degraded soils. The promising isolates were characterized by BIOLOG identification system and isolate NU36 and NU25 showed greatest similarity with Pseudomonas sp. and Acinetobacter sp. respectively. Based on the potential to produce plant growth promoting substances and withstand in stressed environment the most promising isolates will be used to remediate soil and reclaim soil characteristics.

Rural Road Surface Extraction Using Mobile LiDAR Point Cloud Data

Abstract: The existing roadway infrastructures are mostly archived with two-dimensional (2D) drawings that lack the possibility for three-dimensional (3D) interpretation and advanced 3D analysis. The mobile LiDAR system (MLS) is gaining popularity in 3D mapping applications along various types of road corridors. MLS achieves the highest data quality and completeness among the traditional roadway data collection methods. The rural roads in different countries especially in India form a substantial portion of the road network. Therefore the proper maintenance and road safety analysis of rural roads are recommended activity, which could be addressed using detailed 3D road surface information. The absence of raised curb at road boundary, and presence of complexity, heterogeneity and occlusions along the rural roadway settings restrict the use of existing studies for road surface extraction using MLS point cloud data. Therefore considering the above requirement, this research paper proposes a two-stage method. The first stage extract planar ground surfaces which are further used to filter road surface in the second stage. Global properties of road, that is, topology and smoothness and its radiometric response to laser beam of MLS are used in the second stage. MLS point cloud data of rural roadway were used to test the proposed method. The road surface points were accurately extracted without being affected by the absence of raised curb and hanging objects over the road surface, that is, tree canopies and overhead power lines. The quantitative assessment of the proposed method was performed in terms of correctness, completeness and quality, which were 96.3, 94.2, and 90.9%, respectively.

A Study on Modified Mechanical and Wear Characteristics of Epoxy-Particulate Filled Homogenous Composites and Their Functionally Graded Materials

Abstract: This article presents the investigations on modified mechanical and wear characteristics of cement kiln dust (CKD) reinforced homogeneous epoxy composites and its functionally graded materials developed for tribological applications. CKD reinforced homogeneous and functionally graded epoxy composites are developed by simple mechanical stirring and vertical centrifugal casting technique, respectively. Mechanical properties of these graded composites are evaluated and compared with those of homogenously filled epoxy composites. Sliding wear tests are conducted over a range of sliding velocities (105-314 cmls), normal loads (20―40 N), filler contents (0―20 wt %), and sliding distances (0.5―2 km). For this, a pin-on-disk machine and the design of experiments approach using Taguchi's orthogonal arrays are used. A theoretical model is proposed for estimating the sliding wear rates for homogeneous, as well as graded composites. The results found from the theoretical model so proposed are found to be in good agreement with the experimental values under similar test conditions. This study reveals that the presence of cement kiln dust particles enhances the sliding wear resistance of epoxy resin and the homogeneous composites suffer greater wear loss than the graded composites. scanning electron microscopy micrograph confirms the graded dispersion of CKD particles in the matrix.