Labs & Facilities

Undergraduate | Graduate |  Faculty Profiles |  Labs

The laboratories at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering cater the needs of undergraduate and post graduate education, research, development and outside consulting. A brief description of lab facilities appears below:

Thermo Fluids Laboratories

Natural Fluids Refrigeration Center (NFRC)

An ammonia test facility has been installed at the Natural Fluids Refrigeration Center (NFRC) at GIK Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology. The facility features an ammonia vapor compression cycle to condense ammonia vapor from the evaporator, and an ammonia evaporator which can operate in both flooded mode and overfeed mode. The laboratory is equipped with high accuracy/precision instrumentation and computerized data logging system which enable graduate level experimental research at par with international standards. The center is capable of facilitating applied research activities. It provides a strong research base and is recognized for solving industrial refrigeration problems. This center is working under direct supervision of a senior faculty member.

Heat Engines Laboratory

Heat Engines Laboratory provides the facilities for testing the performance of internal combustion engines, and research in the areas of combustion of blended fuels, and use of alternate fuels for I.C. Engines. The Laboratory is also equipped with a boiler simulator, a Two Shaft gas turbine and a compressor for teaching purposes. AVL Analyzer has been used successfully for analyzing emission levels of CO, CO₂, and NOx etc. Along with this there is another transparent engine to provide better visualization and understanding to the students. “Steam Motor and Energy Conversion Test Set “recently a new apparatus has been added to introduce thermodynamics and energy conversion principles of a steam engine plant to students.

Heat Transfer, Refrigeration & Air Conditioning Laboratory

The laboratory houses various equipment for the study of three basic modes of heat transfer, i.e., conduction, convection and radiation. In particular, five scale models of different types of heat exchangers can be investigated to understand their utility in the industry.  A section of the facility is dedicated to five different refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment for the conduct of experiments related to thermodynamics. The laboratory is being further extended to develop more experiments on the renewable energy technologies.

Fluid Mechanics Laboratory

This laboratory contains training equipment to demonstrate basic principles of fluid statics, and fluid dynamics. In addition, flow visualization facilities, working models of turbines, pump testing rigs, and pipe friction apparatus are also available.

Design and Manufacturing Laboratories

CNC Training Laboratory

This laboratory currently consists of 8 different CNC training machines, which includes turning, milling and flexible manufacturing systems. All these machines are portable, state-of-the-art CNC systems and similar to larger industrial machines using EIA, ISO, and Fanuc-compatible programs. This laboratory in conjunction with the CAD/CAM laboratory provides a training facility for completely automated design and manufacturing methods.

Industrial NC/CNC Laboratory

Two different CNC machines are available in this laboratory, which includes lathe and machining Centre. The lab is also equipped with wire-cut EDM and 3D printer. Additional equipment including CNC machines is planned in the future, which will provide hands-on training and research facility on different aspects of CAM. The lab supports graduate research and undergraduate FYPs. The research projects broadly include Incremental Sheet Forming, Deformation Machining, Friction Stir Welding and 3D printing.

Solid Mechanics Laboratory

This teaching laboratory is equipped with various instruments and equipment to reinforce the theory of Statics, Dynamics and Mechanics of solids through experimentation. Torsion testing machine, creep testing machine, thin walled cylinder apparatus, and shearing apparatus, force resolution apparatus and gyroscope polariscope are the key equipment available in this lab. Moreover setups are also available to perform experiments related to disk and drum brake setup, centrifugal force, torque measurement, moment of inertia, elastic and inelastic collision of bodies, thrust forces, pulleys, trusses, belt friction, clutch friction and fly wheel.

Composite Structures Laboratory

The Composite Structures Lab (CSL) provides a platform for the student to polish their fabrication skills regarding engineered materials, especially fiber reinforced composites. The lab is equipped with provisions to conduct hand lay-up of composite materials. The hand lay-up of carbon fibers or glass fibers can be cured employing open molding and Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer molding (VARTM). The lab also houses various in-house developed testing setups such as drop tower, bending fatigue and combined tension-torsion testing machines.

 

Workshop

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering provides a wide range of machines in its work shop. Students can gain experience on machines such as lathe, Shaper and Milling. Along with this, the workshop comprises of sheet shearing, bending and rolling machines. Spark welding, electric welding and Gas welding can also be done. An Electrical Circular Saw and a Radial Arm Drilling machine are also present.

Welding Laboratory

System Dynamics and Control Laboratories

Vibration, Dynamics and Control laboratory (VDC)

Vibration, Dynamics and Control System (VDC) lab has been designed to reinforce theory of Mechanical Vibration and Systems Dynamics and Control through hands-on approach. It has number of instrumented equipment on forced and unforced vibration, rotor-dynamics, health monitoring, multi-mode vibration test-rig, imbalance-response analysis, DC motor, aero-pendulum, inverted-pendulum, liquid-level system, ball and beam and 2-DoF aircraft. Most of the equipment are interfaced with PC running Simulink Real-Time software for real-time visualization. The Lab supports several research projects in the areas of unmanned air and underwater vehicle modelling and control, rotor-dynamics, active magnetic bearings as well as active vibration control are underway in the lab. The lab is well-equipped with PCs, NI DAQ cards, oscilloscopes, power supplies, micro-controllers, variety of sensors/accelerometers, instrumentations, impact hammer and soldering facilities.

Aerodynamics Laboratory

This laboratory is equipped with a supersonic and sub-sonic wind tunnels. A subsonic wind tunnel equipped with a six component balance is fully operational. State of the art hotwire anemometer is also available. The lab supports research on novel wing design (Bird Feather) as well as on aerodynamics.

Mechatronics Design Laboratory

This lab supports undergraduate teaching for Robotics, Circuits & Electronic Devices and Electrical Machine & Drives courses.  This lab is well equipped with measuring instruments, oscilloscopes, DAQ cards, sensors as well as number of test rigs. This lab is also equipped with Puma robot and in-house developed linear stepper drive, servo loop and different robots. Moreover, it also provides the research platform to design and control the actuators and robots for different applications. It is planned to induct additional robot manipulators and apparatus to provide the hands-on experience and research facilities to UG/PG students related to coordinated robot control and artificial intelligence.

Computational Mechanics Laboratories

Computational Laboratory

This laboratory consists of latest state-of-the-art 24 Intel Core-i7 and 19 Intel Core-i3 workstations. This laboratory provides training facility for modeling and simulation of products and processes including solid and computational fluid dynamics. Software library includes MSC MOTION and Structure Bundle (ADAMS, NASTRAN, APEX, MARCHE etc.), ANSYS, AutoCAD, ProEngineer, MATLAB and other analysis tools. These software’s allow development of 3-D models, mechanism design, linear and non-linear analysis of structural, thermal, fluid and dynamical problems. This facility has been used for conducting training workshops on computer integrated design products, development and manufacturing of engineering components for students, national and international participants.