http://nopr.niscpr.res.in/handle/123456789/63536 Fri, 09 Oct 2026 10:47:44 GMT 2026-10-09T10:47:44Z http://nopr.niscpr.res.in/handle/123456789/63547 Title: Electroless Nickel (EN) Coating on Aluminium Cartridge Case for Releasing Bomb Application Authors: Parate, B A; Sahu, A K Abstract: The motivation for this research work is to apply innovative process of Electroless Nickel (EN) coating on aluminium (Al) cartridge cases used for releasing external stores on fighter aircraft. Aluminium, chosen for its lightweight properties, electrical conductivity, non-corrosiveness, and compatibility with energetic materials, proves advantageous in defence applications due to its high strength-to-weight ratio and softer composition compared to other metals. Nickel coating is applied to enhance corrosion resistance, increase wear resistance, eliminate the cracks, blow holes and improve the overall aesthetic appeal of the cartridge. Unlike traditional electroplating methods, novel EN methodology employed here operates through an auto-catalytic reaction, eliminating the need for electricity during metal ion deposition. Before the introduction of the EN coating, the use of bare aluminium cases led to defects such as blow holes or cracks on the cartridge surface. The EN coating applied to the power cartridge case, serve as a thermal barrier without compromising the electrical conductivity of the base material. The paper discusses the successful prevention of defects through a series of trials and emphasizes the crucial role of EN coating on aluminium cartridge cases in emergency situations for releasing bombs from military aircraft. Positive feedback received from users regarding the utilization of EN coating on Al cartridge cases proves the effectiveness and reliability of the process. This process enhances the manufacturing technology to meet the specific and critical requirements of users i.e. Indian Air Force (IAF). Page(s): 235-241 Fri, 01 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMT http://nopr.niscpr.res.in/handle/123456789/63547 2024-03-01T00:00:00Z http://nopr.niscpr.res.in/handle/123456789/63546 Title: A Method for Assessment of Optimum Transport Sustainability Index of an Indian City Authors: Gupta, Ashwani; Madhu, Errampalli Abstract: The estimated Transport Sustainability Index (TSI) of a city is dependent upon the weighted performance of several indicators that can be grouped into environmental, social, economic, or other pillars and signifies the extent to which the city is live-able without creating any adverse future impact. Several researchers have estimated TSI in their own regions using varying indicators, weighting techniques, and aggregation methods for Pillar Sustainability Indices (PSIs). After studying a total of 354 indicators used by different researchers, this study identifies a set of 34 indicators under four pillars of sustainability, following 10-point selection criteria. The identified indicators have been appropriately grouped and attributed to three separate categories of million plus Indian cities. The study proposes to generalize a certain group of indicators for all the cities in a particular category. This study also validates the relevance of proposed set of indicators, their grouping under four pillars and their allocation as per city categories by conducting an Expert Opinion Survey. Studies on estimation of optimum value of TSI at holistic level have not been found readily in literature, though some researchers have considered optimization at indicator level such as network congestion, cost of multimodal travelling, etc. This study proposes a method for arriving at an optimum value of TSI of a typical city, deploying Principal Component Analysis (PCA) method for assigning weights to utility value of indicators and fuzzy logic technique for aggregation of PSIs. The optimum value of TSI is a valuable estimate to the policy planners since it helps them to deploy just adequate resources for improving the city’s transport sustainability, minimizing wastage and maximizing savings in resources. Page(s): 242-254 Fri, 01 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMT http://nopr.niscpr.res.in/handle/123456789/63546 2024-03-01T00:00:00Z http://nopr.niscpr.res.in/handle/123456789/63545 Title: Characterization and Utilization of Recycled Aluminium Residues for Eco-Friendly Road Construction Practices Authors: Singh, Vikash; Kumar, Ajay; Singh, Sumit; Bano, Samreen; Kumar, Anil; Pathak, Virendra; Srivastava, Jyoti Bhushan Abstract: The economic growth of any nation relies heavily on industrialization, but this comes at the cost of a significant increase in industrial waste production, posing a detrimental impact on the environment and natural resources. One such waste, known as red mud, is a byproduct of Bayer's method for aluminum extraction from bauxite ore. Due to its highly alkaline nature, red mud poses a serious threat to the ecosystem. To address this issue, an effective strategy involves utilizing red mud in construction projects with proper stabilization methods. This study specifically explores the endurance of red mud when combined with cement, considering its suitability as a material for highway subgrade and embankment construction. The research involves substituting red mud with varying percentages of cement (3%, 6%, and 9% by dry weight) to thoroughly investigate how cement influences the strength characteristics of red mud. This analysis includes factors such as compaction characteristics, California Bearing Ratio, and Unconfined Compressive Strength. Additionally, embankment stability is assessed using Geo-5 software. The current study delves into the optimization of slope stability, ensuring the required Factor of Safety in accordance with Indian Roads Congress guidelines. Page(s): 255-263 Fri, 01 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMT http://nopr.niscpr.res.in/handle/123456789/63545 2024-03-01T00:00:00Z http://nopr.niscpr.res.in/handle/123456789/63544 Title: Retinal Blood Vessel Segmentation through Morphology Cascaded Features and Supervised Learning Authors: Suhasini Devi, Y Aruna; Chari Kamsali, Manjunatha Abstract: Retinal blood vessels are the most important attributes in the automatic diagnosis of Diabetic Retinopathy (DR). Since the advanced stages of DR are diagnosed through blood vessels, their segmentation followed by clear analysis is required. Such process can be accompanied through the classification. Segmentation of minor and thin vessels is a challenge because they are analogous to background pixels in fundus image. To solve this issue, this paper proposes a three-stage retinal vessel segmentation mechanism from fundus images. In the first stage, the fundus image is pre-processed for enhancement and then major blood vessels are processed, after extracting them through filtering and morphological transformation. Each pixel of the resulting image is represented by a set of composite features and then processed for pixel level classification. A total of five different features are used to signify each pixel and then for classification Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm is used. In the final and post-processing stage, the outputs of first two stages are fused to get the complete retinal vessel structure. Using DRIVE dataset, the proposed method’s experimental validation proves the effectiveness of segmentation accuracy and computational time. The average improvement in the Accuracy, Specificity and Sensitivity is observed as 2.3645%, 1.3365% and 5.2314% respectively from past recent vessel segmentation methods. Page(s): 264-273 Fri, 01 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMT http://nopr.niscpr.res.in/handle/123456789/63544 2024-03-01T00:00:00Z