This site is Maintained by Dr. M. S. Dasgupta

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[Ph.D. Research]        [Sponsored Projects]        [Papers Published ]        [Students Research]

Research activities related to Ph.D.: 

Ph.D. Thesis Title: Identification and Control of Some Unit Operations Using Fuzzy Logic and Neural Network.

Work done in brief: After exhaustive literature survey to establish the research work in appropriate context, the following three unit operations are selected for control purpose: Heat exchanger unit, Level unit and Distillation unit, simply because they are common industrial application and setups were available.

 Initially conventional controllers are designed for the above-mentioned processes. Later on fuzzy and ANN based controllers are designed for the same. For design of fuzzy and ANN controllers, dynamic and steady state information with respect to input variables are generated. The performances of the fuzzy and ANN controllers are compared with that of conventional controllers to ascertain their applicability.

 The overall conclusion is that the advanced controllers namely fuzzy and ANN controllers can be gainfully implemented, for common unit operations with very minimum trial and error, provided computing machines are affordable (I used AT 386 machine) The advanced controllers, in most cases are found to out perform the conventional controllers. This is a prominent motivating factor for any future work in this area. Moreover, the advanced controllers, being model independent, reduces the effort of Mathematical modeling, particularly for new or complex systems.

I published 3 Journal papers based on my Ph.D. work.

 

Sponsored projects:

I have successfully completed three UGC Minor research Projects of two years duration each. I am presently working on a DST sponsored (7.08 Lakh) project titled: Air-water Two Phase Flow Prediction in Horizontal and Near-horizontal Pipe Using Fuzzy Decision Maker  

After my Ph.D., I got interested in the adiabatic two-phase flow area, which is a developing field with immense potential. Also I could apply my experience of on-line computerized control, fuzzy logic and neural network for the same. I depended mainly on self-learning and also visited IIT Mumbai and attended a seminar at IIT Kanpur to interact with the subject experts. Within a year I submitted two research proposals. I received Young Scientist Award and funding of Rs. 7.08 Lakhs from DST for one of them

The objective of this project is a disciplined study of flow regimes in horizontal and near horizontal flow in small pipes (20 to 40 mm diameter). Transition from one type of flow regime to other will be studied in depth. The spatial and temporal locations of phases for a given flow regime will be investigated using wire-mesh conductivity sensor (imported from Germany). The thrust will be on developing a methodology to predict the flow regime accurately from wire-mesh sensor generated conductivity data using fuzzy decision making technique. Investigation will be carried out at different flow rates at the vicinity of prevailing industrial conditions.

Recently I have submitted two other research proposals to concerned funding agencies

 

Published Papers:

Title of Paper
Author(s)
Name, Volume and No. of Journal and Year of Publication
Page No.
From
To
Implementation of fuzzy control on a heat exchanger Dasgupta M S & Gupta R K, Indian Chem. Engr. Section A, Vol 5, No 4, Oct-Dec. (1998) 145 155
Fuzzy controller    developed from   information   granules for a heat exchanger. Dasgupta M S & Gupta R. K Indian J. of Chem. Tech. Vol 7, July, (2000). 183 191
ANN based on-line adaptive controller for Heat exchanger. Dasgupta M S, Menon G B, Gupta R K, Indian J. of Chem. Tech. Vol 8, April, (2001) 227 234
         

 

Students Research Activities:

Working with students (under graduate and post graduate) for their small project works is a pleasure and is also considered importantmportance at BITS Pilani.

Over the years I have guided several thesis works for graduate and undergraduate students, predominantly in Mechanical Engineering Design related areas. At the time of software boom, thesis works were mainly CAD based, other times I have concentrated on stress analysis and product design. Recently I have guided couple of thesis in the area of web based in-house teaching resource development as per the Institute thrust area.

Apart from thesis work, undergraduate students at BITS has provision for taking multiple smaller project works. These projects are oriented in the areas of their interest, in categories like Study oriented, Lab oriented, Computer oriented and Special projects. Every semester I have guided, on an average six such projects distributed in different categories. Note worthy works include stress distribution demonstration software, Fabrication of setup for rolling friction measurement, web based reference material development, DFM guidelines etc.

Design Projects (DE G522),  give a new set of opportunity and challenges in 2003. My students made several interesting and useful prototypes. An innovative bi-cycle stand with 40% space saving is installed in large numbers at new Library complex. The Imprivised  Crate designed specifically for BITS students is under field trial. This year also we are working on several interesting projects.