Projects & Technical Papers- ME Branch

Fesibility of private e vehicle in india: challenges and opportunities.

India is currently in the midst of a full-blown air pollution crisis. While pictures of entire cities engulfed in dense smog might garner national sympathy, albeit for a few weeks, a further inquisition into the numbers paints an even more harrowing picture. In India, the annual death toll from air pollution currently exceeds 1.6 million every year. Lung cancer is now the second largest cause of death after cardiovascular diseases, and it is increasingly affecting younger people as well as non-smokers. And while worldwide air pollution is ever on the rise, India has proved itself to be the epicentre of the crisis. The fact that 11 out of the 12 most polluted cities are located in India, as reported by the World Health Organization, is a testament to the scale of India’s precarious situation. In India, the transport sector emits an estimated 261 Tg of Carbon Dioxide, of which 94.5
per cent is contributed by road transport. The main pollutants discharged by vehicles consist of CO, unburnt HC, Pb, NO2 , SO2 and SPM from tailpipes. In total, by most estimates, vehicular pollution contributes to around 22.5 per cent of the total pollution. This pollution has concrete effects on the daily lives of citizens. A study by the International Council of Clean Transportation estimates that as much as two-thirds of all deaths from air pollution in India can be attributed to combustion engines. It is important to note that the amount of pollution caused by different groups of automobiles vary drastically. For instance, two wheelers and trucks account for about 70 per cent of all PM10 particles in the atmosphere. This can be mainly attributed to the laxity in regulations on these types of vehicles as compared to four wheelers. Around 70 per cent of three wheelers in India still use a two-stroke engine, which is highly polluting. Similarly, heavy duty trucks have been the slowest in reducing and improving their emission standards, as these standards are not uniform across the country. There is no simple answer to the problem of air pollution. A situation as bad as India’s must be addressed in a multi-faceted, holistic manner. One obvious solution would be to reduce the pollution from vehicular exhaust. In order to achieve this, the government has pushed for the electrification of vehicles in India. Electric vehicles (EVs) in the country have a tumultuous history. In the past, we have seen a flurry of proposals that have often been later redacted; for instance, in 2017 Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari famously announced that he intended for India to move to 100 per cent electric cars by 2030 to the shock of auto manufacturers in the nation. These plans were later diluted, from a 100 per cent electric future to a mere 30 per cent.

STUDY ON HYPER LOOP TECHNOLOGY

A Hyperloop is a proposed mode of passenger and freight transportation, first used to describe an open-source vactrain design released by a joint team from Tesla and SpaceX Hyperloop is a sealed tube or system of tubes with low air pressure through which a pod may travel substantially free of air resistance or friction The Hyperloop could convey people or objects at airline or hypersonic speeds while being very energy efficient This would drastically reduce travel times versus trains as well as planes^[2] over distances of under approximately 1,500 kilometres (930 miles) Elon Musk first publicly mentioned the Hyperloop in 2012.^[4] His initial concept incorporated reduced-pressure tubes in which pressurized capsules ride on air bearings driven by linear induction motors and axial compressors The Hyperloop Alpha concept was first published in August 2013, proposing and examining a route running from the Los Angeles region to the San Francisco Bay Area roughly following the Interstate    corridor. The Hyperloop Genesis paper conceived of a hyperloop system that would propel passengers along the 350-mile (560 km) route at a speed of 760 mph (1,200 km/h), allowing for a travel time of 35 minutes, which is considerably faster than current rail or air travel times. Preliminary cost estimates for this LA–SF suggested route were included in the white paper—US$6 billion for a passenger-only version, and US$7.5 billion for a somewhat larger-diameter version transporting passengers and vehicles (Transportation analysts had doubts that the system could be constructed on that budget. Some analysts claimed that the Hyperloop would be several billion dollars overbudget, taking into consideration construction, development, and operation costs.The Hyperloop concept has been explicitly “open-sourced” by Musk and SpaceX, and others have been encouraged to take the ideas and further develop them. To that end, a few companies have been formed, and several interdisciplinary student-led teams are working to advance the technology SpaceX built an approximately 1-mile-long (1.6 km) subscale track for its pod design competition at its headquarters in Hawthorne California”We have just named the DP World – Virgin Hyperloop One consortium as the original project proponent for the Mumbai-Pune hyperloop project and [are] preparing to start the public procurement process,” he continued. “Maharashtra and India is at the forefront of hyperloop infrastructure building now and this is a moment of pride for our people.

RESEARCH ON ZIRCONIUM ALLOY

Zirconium alloys are solid solutions of zirconium or other metals, a common subgroup having the trade mark Zircaloy. Zirconium has very low absorption cross-section of thermal neutrons, high hardness, ductility  and corrosion resistance. One of the main uses of zirconium alloys is in nuclear technology, as cladding of fuel rods in nuclear reactors, especially water reactor. A typical composition of nuclear-grade zirconium alloys is more than 95 weight percent  zirconium and less than 2% of tin, niobium, iron, chromium, nickel and other metals, which are added to improve mechanical properties and corrosion resistance.

The water cooling of reactor zirconium alloys elevates requirement for their resistance to oxidation-related nodular corrosion. Furthermore, oxidative reaction of zirconium with water releases hydrogen gas, which partly diffuses into the alloy and forms zirconium hydrides. The hydrides are less dense and are weaker mechanically than the alloy; their formation results in blistering and cracking of the cladding – a phenomenon known as hydrogen embrittlement.

Production and properties

Commercial non-nuclear grade zirconium typically contains 1–5% of hafnium, whose neutron absorption cross-section is 600 times that of zirconium. Hafnium must therefore be almost entirely removed (reduced to < 0.02% of the alloy) for reactor applications.

Nuclear-grade zirconium alloys contain more than 95% Zr, and therefore most of their properties are similar to those of pure zirconium. The absorption cross section for thermal neutrons is 0.18 barn for zirconium, which is much lower than that for such common metals as iron (2.4 barn) and nickel (4.5 barn) The composition and the main applications of common reactor-grade alloys are summarized below. These alloys contain less than 0.3% of iron and chromium and 0.1–0.14% oxygen.

Alloy	Sn, %	Nb, %	Vendor (country)	Component	Reactor type
Zircaloy 2	1.2–1.7	–	All vendors	Cladding, structural components	BWR, CANDU
Zircaloy 4	1.2–1.7	–	All vendors	Cladding, structural components	BWR, PWR, CANDU
ZIRLO	0.7–1	1	Westinghouse	Cladding	BWR, PWR
Zr Sponge	–	–	Japan and Russia	Cladding	BWR
ZrSn	0.25	–	Westinghouse	Cladding	BWR
Zr2.5Nb	–	2.4–2.8	Fabrica de Aleaciones Especiales(FAE)(Argentina)	Pressure tube	CANDU
E110	–	0.9–1.1	Russia	Cladding	VVER
E125	–	2.5	Russia	Pressure tube	RBMK
E635	0.8–1.3	0.8–1	Russia	Structural components	VVER
M5	–	0.8–1.2	Areva	Cladding, structural components	PWR

Applications

This Russian shot “glass” is made of zirconium alloy.

Zirconium alloys are corrosion resistant and biocompatible, and therefore can be used for body implants. In one particular application, a Zr-2.5Nb alloy is formed into a knee or hip implant and then oxidized to produce a hard ceramic surface for use in bearing against a polyethylene component. This oxidized zirconium alloy material provides the beneficial surface properties of a ceramic (reduced friction and increased abrasion resistance), while retaining the beneficial bulk properties of the underlying metal (manufacturability, fracture toughness, and ductility), providing a good solution for these medical implant applications.

Reduction of zirconium demand in Russia due to nuclear demilitarization after the end of the cold war resulted in the exotic production of household zirconium items such as the vodka shot glass shown in the picture.