The usage of composites has increased in various fields, including automotive and aerospace, due to their high strength-to-weight ratio. The optimum use of composite material is also being studied to bring down the fuel costs and carbon emissions to atmosphere. The concept of optimum usage of composite material could be applied at the initial design stage or when repairing damaged composite structures. This paper describes preliminary work towards the optimum usage of π/4 quasi-isotropic E-glass/epoxy laminate repair practices, and it demonstrates the procedure followed to determine their tensile properties. This work used unidirectional fibre (UDF) laminae and UDF laminate specimens to understand the tensile properties of UDF E-glass/epoxy laminate. This paper provides a unique comparison between experimental results of UDF laminae and UDF laminate level. The tensile properties obtained from UDF laminae and UDF laminate were suitably used to derive [A][B][D] matrices of π/4 quasi-isotropic laminates, so as to understand whether the laminates were pertaining to the quasi-isotropic category. Finally, π/4 quasi-isotropic laminates with the above-mentioned codes were tested to understand the tensile properties. The derived properties could be suitably used for future work on quasi-isotropic E-glass/epoxy composite laminate repair practices.

Rotary solid desiccant wheels are used as sensible and latent heat recovery wheels in the Desiccant-HVAC systems. The two major types of these wheels include enthalpy (total energy recovery) wheels which remove sensible heat and latent heat from process air and transfer them to regeneration air, and dehumidification wheels which transfer a significant amount of moisture (latent heat) at the same time minimizes heat transfer. In this work a set of novel design of hybrid rotary desiccant wheel constructed using a composite homogeneous mixture of solid desiccants (multiple types of silica gel and molecular sieves) are proposed. The transport phenomena taking place in the proposed set of novel design of hybrid rotary desiccant wheel are simulated numerically using an in house finite volume method based CFD code. The performances of these wheels are compared with conventional type of wheels made of molecular sieves and silica gel, respectively. The results show that the performance of these hybrid wheels are enhanced by up to 40 % by using these novel composite wheel designs.

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<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">In order to meet the stringent emission norms like EU6 and EU7 together with CAFÉ/CAFC norms, down-sizing of the engine is one of the thrust areas of focus among the OEMs. To this end, keeping the engine size small but to achieve the required power output, advanced Turbo charged Gasoline Direct Injection engine technology (TGDI) has emerged. However, TGDI technology is susceptible to an abnormal combustion phenomenon termed as Low Speed Pre-Ignition (LSPI) event. This event happens prior to the intended combustion, which causes the catastrophic engine damage. Several studies in terms of simulation and experiments to understand this phenomenon are reported in the literature. The main factors influencing this occurrence are found to be engine design and calibration, fuel types and engine oil formulation (in terms of calcium content). In this paper, advanced methods to handle the LSPI occurrence severity and component level advances in design robustness to avoid the engine damage are reported. The developed techniques include robust piston design, Piston ring design and coating technologies. In overall, the techniques related to engine design to predict the LSPI occurrence in terms of peak cylinder pressure (PCP) and number of events are summarized.</div></div>