Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre

About: Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre is a facility organization based out in Thiruvananthapuram, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Aerosol & Ultimate tensile strength. The organization has 2092 authors who have published 3058 publications receiving 47975 citations. The organization is also known as: VSSC.

Addition‐cure‐type phenolic resin based on alder‐ene reaction: Synthesis and laminate composite properties

Abstract: A maleimide-functional phenolic resin was reactively blended with an allyl-functional novolac in varying proportions. The two polymers were coreacted by an addition mechanism through Alder-ene and Wagner–Jauregg reactions to form a crosslinked network system. The cure characterization was done by differential scanning calorimetry and dynamic mechanical analysis. The system underwent a multistep curing process over a temperature range of 110–270°C. Although the cure profiles were independent of the composition, the presence of maleimide led to a reduced isothermal gel time of the blend. Increasing the allylphenol content decreased the crosslinking in the cured matrix, leading to enhanced toughness and improved resin-dominant mechanical properties of the resultant silica laminate composites. Changing the reinforcement from silica to glass resulted in further amelioration of the resin-reinforcement interaction, but the resin-dominant properties of the composite remained unaltered. Increasing the maleimide content resulted in enhanced thermal stability. Integrating both the reactive groups in a single polymer and its curing led to enhanced thermal stability and Tg, but to decreased mechanical properties of the laminate composites. This can be attributed to a brittle matrix resulting from enhanced crosslinking facilitated by interaction of the reactive groups located on the polymer of an identical backbone structure. The cured polymers showed a Tg in the range of 170–190°C. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 80: 737–749, 2001

Anthropogenic emissions from South Asia reverses the aerosol indirect effect over the northern Indian Ocean

Abstract: Atmospheric aerosols play an important role in the formation of warm clouds by acting as efficient cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and their interactions are believed to cool the Earth-Atmosphere system (‘first indirect effect or Twomey effect’) in a highly uncertain manner compared to the other forcing agents. Here we demonstrate using long-term (2003–2016) satellite observations (NASA’s A-train satellite constellations) over the northern Indian Ocean, that enhanced aerosol loading (due to anthropogenic emissions) can reverse the first indirect effect significantly. In contrast to Twomey effect, a statistically significant increase in cloud effective radius (CER, µm) is observed with respect to an increase in aerosol loading for clouds having low liquid water path (LWP < 75 g m−2) and drier cloud tops. Probable physical mechanisms for this effect are the intense competition for available water vapour due to higher concentrations of anthropogenic aerosols and entrainment of dry air on cloud tops. For such clouds, cloud water content showed a negative response to cloud droplet number concentrations and the estimated intrinsic radiative effect suggest a warming at the Top of the Atmosphere. Although uncertainties exist in quantifying aerosol-cloud interactions (ACI) using satellite observations, present study indicates the physical existence of anti-Twomey effect over the northern Indian Ocean during south Asian outflow.

Viscoelastic properties of polyacrylonitrile terpolymers during thermo‐oxidative stabilization (cyclization)

Abstract: A study on the thermo-oxidative stabilization (cyclization) of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) terpolymers using dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA) is reported in this article. When the changes in viscoelastic properties were monitored in a rectangular tension mode, besides the tan δ peak characteristic of the glass transition observed below 200°C, the copolymer and the terpolymer displayed a second peak above 200°C due to the cyclization leading to the formation of ladder structures. The initiation temperature of the cyclization process as well as the peak temperature is found to depend on the acid value and the composition of the precursor polymer. The results presented show that monitoring the changes in viscoelastic properties during cyclization provides insight into the material properties as a result of the chemical changes that are taking place. These observations were confirmed by structural characterization using IR spectroscopy, and the observed chemical changes agree with the literature studies, as due to the thermal cyclization process. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.