arXiv subjects

Sandeep Saha

Publications and source records attributed to Sandeep Saha.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Techno economic feasibility study of solar ORC in India

Solar energy has enormous potential because there is a worldwide need to meet energy demands. Depleting non-renewable energy resources, increasing carbon emissions, and other environmental effects concern the scientific community to develop an alternative approach to electricity production. In this article, we present the study of a solar-powered Organic Rankine cycle considering Indian climatic conditions. Initially, we scrutinized seven working fluids and assessed their performance in the ORC at an evaporator pressure range of 9-30 bar and a mass flow rate range of 0.2 kg/s to 4.5 kg/s. For a fixed sink temperature of 298 K, we evaluate the system using four different power ratings of 2, 20, 50, and 100 kW based on four different source temperatures of 423 K, 403 K, 383 K, and 363 K. We estimate the system cost for each working fluid in each scenario separately. Our findings suggest that R 1233zd(E) is the optimum performing working fluid based on cost, cost-effectiveness, and environmental friendliness. We also notice that the estimated system scale cost is very competitive and could be a great alternative to the technologies already on the Indian market.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2023

Aerodynamic performance of a tandem wing configuration inspired from dragonfly gliding flight for MAV application

The design of micro air vehicles (MAVs) introduces aerodynamic performance challenges due to the small size and, consequently, the low Reynolds number 10000-100000. Natural fliers are naturally optimized and are comparable in size to MAVs, making them a potent candidate to mimic for the design of MAVs. The dragonfly frequently uses a gliding mode of flight relative to the other small fliers and operates at a range of 100-10000. The literature suggests that the corrugated profile improves the aerodynamic efficiency around Re at 104. It allows us to investigate the aerodynamic advantages of tandem corrugated airfoil inspired by the dragonfly wing. In this paper, we perform direct numerical simulations of flow past bio-inspired corrugated wing to understand the impact of the tandem wing configuration. The horizontal distance between the wings is fixed, and the vertical distance varies. The results reveal that the forewing/hindwing interaction increases the lift of the forewing relative to the isolated wing for all the case studies. The combined drag coefficient drops by approximately 7%, and overall efficiency drops by approximately 13% relative to an isolated wing for a case study with zero vertical spacing between forewing and hindwing at 3 degree angle of attack, fixed for both wings. With no vertical gap, the aerodynamic efficiency matches close to the isolated wing with the decrease in tandem wing combined drag coefficient compared to an isolated wing.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2023

Performance enhancement of a 100 watts class Tesla turbine

Tesla turbines are an attractive but less explored area in low-power applications. This article presents an experimental investigation of a centimeter scale Tesla turbine in bi and unidirectional outlet configuration with compressed air at 6 bar. The turbine's performance is enhanced by approximately 38% for a unidirectional outlet configuration. Furthermore, we also investigate the electrical power of the turbine in a bi-directional outlet configuration by coupling the turbine with a generator. Despite achieving higher performance in unidirectional outlet configuration, we observe substantial losses at the inlet we use for the experiment. To illustrate and improve the losses, we numerically investigate the turbine inlet at a total pressure and temperature difference of 2 bar and 50 degree K, respectively. Subsequently, we design two more nozzles and compared their performance with the nozzle we used in our experiment. Our findings suggest that nozzle 3 performs the best in delivering the highest Mach no and uniformity across the slits. This observation would help optimize the nozzle suitable for the Tesla turbine.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2022

Transoceanic migration of dragonflies and branched optimal route networks

The intriguing annual migration of the dragonfly species, Pantala flavescens was reported almost a century ago (Fraser 1924). The multi-generational, transoceanic migration circuit spanning from India to Africa is an astonishing feat for an inches-long insect. Wind, precipitation, fuel, breeding, and life cycle affect the migration, yet understanding of their collective role in the migration remains elusive. We identify the transoceanic migration route by imposing a time constraint emerging from energetics on Djikstra's path-planning algorithm. Energetics calculations reveal a Pantala flavescens can endure 90 hours of steady flight at 4.5m/s. We incorporate active wind compensation in Djikstra's algorithm to compute the migration route from years 2002 to 2007. The prevailing winds play a pivotal role; a direct crossing of the Indian Ocean from Africa to India is feasible with the Somali Jet, whereas the return requires stopovers in Maldives and Seychelles. The migration timing, identified using monthly-successful trajectories, life cycle, and precipitation data, corroborates reported observations. Finally, our timely sighting in Cherrapunji, India (25.2N 91.7E) and a branched network hypothesis connect the likely origin of the migration in North-Eastern India with Pantala flavescens's arrival in South-Eastern India with the retreating monsoons; a clue to their extensive global dispersal.

physics.bio-ph↗

arXiv2022

Puff-like instability in laminar to turbulence supercritical transition of round jets

We explore the laminar to turbulence transition of round jets at low Reynolds number (Re < 1000) using a novel experimental setup and linear stability theory (LST). The setup has a large domain and a low disturbance environment which increases the critical Re to approximately 500, permitting the appearance of a hitherto unknown puff-like instability (PFI). The instability is identified in the self-similar region of the jet through clean flow visualizations (FV) and further corroborated by particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements. For 400< Re <700, the flow exhibits PFI embedded in a puff-train encapsulated by a laminar flow analogous to 'puffs' in pipe-flow transition; the latter being symbolic of the finite-amplitude disturbance transition scenario. The observation that PFI convects close to the average local velocity with an inflectional velocity profile further strengthens the analogy. LST predicts that PFI is effectively a superposition of the helical mode (HM) pair with azimuthal wavenumbers n=+-1. Hence, PFI can also appear in the infinitesimal-amplitude supercritical route to transition of linearly unstable flows.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2021

Investigation of Flight Conditions where Box-Wing Outperforms Mono-Wing Configurations for Small UAVs

We investigate the aerodynamic efficiency and flight dynamics of mono-wing and box-wing configurations across various parameters, including aspect ratio, velocity, and lift requirements. We find that although mono-wing configurations exhibit superior aerodynamic efficiency in certain regimes, box-wing designs perform better in circumstances like high velocities and increased lift demands. Box-wing configurations also prove advantageous when induced drag is higher than friction drag due to their ability to suppress the tip vortices. Furthermore, while analyzing the flight dynamics, low aspect ratio box-wing configurations show improved gust tolerance and stability in longitudinal and lateral dynamics. However, no substantial difference in flight dynamics is observed between box-wing and mono-wing designs for high aspect ratio configurations. The findings underscore the importance of selecting the appropriate wing configuration based on specific performance requirements and operational conditions.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2018

Rotational Instabilities in Stratified Miscible Layers

Instability of stratified multi-phase flow in a rotating platform becomes important because of a potential role in micro-mixing and micro-machines. Centrifugal actuation can play an important role in driving the flow and Coriolis force can enhance the mixing in a short span by destabilizing the flow. In this study, we focus on the impact of the Coriolis force on a rotating viscosity-stratified flow with a thin diffusive mixed layer between two fluid layers. Modal stability analysis is used to estimate the critical parameters, namely Rotation number, Reynolds number, and wave number, which are responsible to modulate the instability mechanism for different viscosity contrasts. Present study explores competing influences of rotational forces against the viscous and inertial forces. Correspondingly, rotational direction (clockwise/anticlockwise) shows a significant effect on the spatio-temporal instability mechanism and anticlockwise rotation promotes the instability. Usually, miscible viscosity stratified flow with respect to streamwise disturbance becomes more unstable for a thinner mixed layer. On the contrary, our numerical computation confirms a completely contrasting scenario, considering Coriolis force driven instability of a miscible system on account of spanwise disturbances. Possible physical mechanisms for the same are discussed in terms of base flow and energy fluctuation among perturbed and base flow. Comparison of two and three-dimensional instability is done to give a clear-cut idea about the linear instability of the flow system considered herein. Velocity and viscosity perturbation distributions display a critical bonding between the vortices near and away from mixed layer, which may be responsible for the variation of instability with respect to viscosity ratio and rotational direction.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2018

Rotational Instabilities in Microchannel Flows

Mixing in numerous medical and chemical applications, involving overly long microchannels, can be enhanced by inducing flow instabilities. The channel length, is thus shortened in the inertial microfluidics regime due to the enhanced mixing, thereby rendering the device compact and portable. Motivated by the emerging applications of lab-on-a-CD based compact microfluidic devices, we analyze the linear stability of rotationally actuated microchannel flows commonly deployed for biochemical and biomedical applications. The solution of the coupled system of Orr-Sommerfeld (OS) and Squire (SQ) equations yields the growth rate and the neutral curve of the two types of instabilities: (i) the Tollmien-Schlichting (TS) wave and (ii) the Coriolis force-driven instability. We report the existence of four distinct unstable modes (Modes I-IV) at low Reynolds numbers of which only the existence of Mode I is previously known for the present flow configuration. Furthermore, Modes I and II exhibit competing characteristics. We infer that Modes III and IV might cause strong mixing locally by virtue of strong velocity perturbation in proximity to the interface. We quantify the potential of all the modes to induce such localized mixing near the interface using the notion of penetration depth. Further, insight into the mechanism of energy transfer, drawn from the evaluation of kinetic-energy budget, reveals that the Reynolds stress first transfers energy from the mean flow to the streamwise velocity fluctuations. The Coriolis force, thereafter, redistributes the axial momentum into spanwise and wall-normal directions, generating the frequently observed roll-cell structures. A qualitative comparison of our predictions with reported experiments on roll-cells indicates co-existence of Modes I and II.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2012

Self-Sustained Reaction Fronts in Porous Media

We analyze experimentally chemical waves propagation in the disordered flow field of a porous medium. The reaction fronts travel at a constant velocity which drastically depends on the mean flow direction and rate. The fronts may propagate either downstream and upstream but, surprisingly, they remain static over a range of flow rate values. Resulting from the competition between the chemical reaction and the disordered flow field, these frozen fronts display a particular sawtooth shape. The frozen regime is likely to be associated with front pinning in low velocity zones, the number of which varies with the ratio of the mean flow and the chemical front velocities.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗