The commercially available unmanned aerial vehicles are not good enough for search and rescue flight at high altitudes. This is because as the altitude increases, the density of air decreases which affects the thrust generation of the UAV. The objective of this research work is to design thrust optimized blade for an altitude range of 3,000–5,000 m with a density of air 0.7364 kg/m3, respectively, and perform thrust analysis. The property of aluminum alloy 1,060 being lightweight is chosen for designing and testing of blade. The blade element theory-based design and analysis code was developed, and user-friendly aerodynamic inputs were used to obtain the desired outputs. The geometry designed for an altitude range of 3,000-5,000 m faced the total stress of 6.0 MPa which was at 70% of the blade span. This stress is within the limit of yield strength of the aluminum alloy, 28 MPa. The modal analysis shows the first natural frequency occurs at around 12,000 RPM which is safe for operating the blade at 0-5,000 RPM. Experimental analysis of the blade gave a thrust of 0.92 N at 2,697 RPM at 1,400 m. The analytical solution for thrust with the same conditions was 1.7 N with 85.6% efficiency. The validation of experimental results has been done by the CFD analysis. The CFD analysis was performed in ANSYS CFX which gave a thrust value of 2.27 N for the same boundary conditions. Thus, the blade designed for high altitude SAR UAV is structurally safe to operate in 0-5,000 RPM range, and its use in search missions could save many lives in the Himalayas.

The agriculture sector of Nepal has been plagued by problems of poor irrigation networks and infrastructure. This has forced farmers to use fuel and electricity-based pumps, which are both expensive and unsustainable. The problems related to the distribution of power and fluctuating voltages add to the ineffectiveness of the electrical pumping system. So, as a better alternative for environment-friendly and inexpensive irrigation infrastructure, this paper proposes a design methodology of a community-operated hydro-powered pump called water turbine pump (WTP). Although introduced in the 1920s, this technology has been largely ignored nowadays. Moreover, there are insufficient literature and technical documentation to support the design decisions for developers. With an objective to induce momentum in the research and development of this technology, this work presents a well-defined methodology to design a WTP using a propeller turbine directly coupled with a centrifugal pump, in reference to a site located in Bardiya, Nepal. The WTP designed using this methodology could utilize a head of 3 m and a flow rate of 150 lps to deliver 14 lps of water to a height of 14.9 m, yielding a head ratio of 1:5, with an overall efficiency of 50.5%.

Present work analyses the condensation of superheated water vapor in supersonic Barschdorff nozzle. The influence of pneumatic mounts in 3D laval nozzle is analyzed using steady and unsteady two phase non-equilibrium condensation steam flow model in Ansys CFX16. Mesh independency studies in 2D model showed that at a lower inlet total temperature and very fine mesh (e.g. 100.2°C and 77k mesh elements) there is problem with the convergence using steady simulation. This is possibly due to the ability of very fine mesh to capture the small flow unsteadiness. The variation in location of Wilson’s point, Wilson’s pressure and maximum sub-cooling rate at the centerline of the nozzle is below 1.5%. The 2D CFD nucleation rate is 50% stronger and droplet diameter is 18% higher compared to the 3D CFD results. The deviation in nucleation rate and droplet diameter at nozzle outlet is the result of dissipation due to wing structure in the 3D model. Nucleation zone predicted by Ansys CFX16 is far upstream the experimental one. Different correction factors in modified nucleation model were used to fit the computed pressure distribution with the experimental one. The correction factor is dependent on boundary conditions and nozzle profile. It is thus concluded that the significance of such correction factor is not unique.