What will Eiffel Tower look like if we used finite element method to redesign it ?
Humans have been designing and building fascinating things even before the development of the finite element method.  To give one example, Maurice Koechlin and Emile Nouguier laid out the structural design of the Eiffel Tower in 1889 much before the development of the finite element method as a field in 1947.

The idea of this course is to provide a fresh perspective on engineering design using finite element method.

In a nutshell, the course will help the participant answer the following questions

• Why learn finite element method ?
• How to apply FEM to design structures ?
• What is the FEA checklist ?
• How to verify the results of the FEA ?

The course will explain the key ingredients in the design of structures using FEM using a set of case studies.
It is a hands on course. The participants will do the following

• Build models
• Analyse them
• Validate the results

A two (2) day interactive seminar aimed at engineers and designes to understand the basics of finite elemental analysis (FEA) to enable them in the design of structures. This is purely industry oriented program with lots of practical information and case studies inbuilt in it.

Date: Mar 22-23, 2012

Engineer, designers, working in the design of structures in marine, automotive, construction, heavy equipment, energy and other engineering industry.

Dhanushkodi is the CEO of TechPassion. He holds a B-Tech in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technolofy (IIT Madras) and Masters in Mechanical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Before founding TechPassion he was Research Engineer at General Electric Research Center.

Fundamentals of Pneumatics
An understanding of Pneumatics from an Industrial perspective

Current problem – Lack of industrial level training to upgrade the skills of resources in the making low cost automation

A two (2) day interactive seminar aimed at engineers and diploma holders to understand the basics of pneumatics to enable them in the selection, design, assembling, testing and operation of automation systems. This is purely industry oriented program with lots of practical information and case studies inbuilt in it.

Date: Feb 29 – Mar 1, 2012

Engineers, designers, technicians working in the design, assembly, installation, operation and maintenance of pneumatics systems.

Uday Kumar is the CEO of Mac-N-Hom Systems. He holds a B-Tech in Mechanical Engineering from College of Engineering Trivandrum (CET) and an MBA degree from School of Management Studies (SMS), CUSAT. He has over twenty five (25) years experience in hydraulics and pneumatics field. In addition he has several technical papers published in AIMTDR conferences.

Fundamentals of Hydraulics
An understanding of Hydraulics from an Industrial perspective

Current problem – Lack of industrial level training to upgrade the skills of resources in the making low cost automation

A two (2) day interactive seminar aimed at engineers and diploma holders to understand the basics of hydraulics to enable them in the selection, design, assembling, testing and operation of automation systems. This is purely industry oriented program with lots of practical information and case studies inbuilt in it.

Date: Feb 21-22, 2012

Engineers, designers, technicians working in the design, assembly, installation, operation and maintenance of hydraulics systems.

Uday Kumar is the CEO of Mac-N-Hom Systems. He holds a B-Tech in Mechanical Engineering from College of Engineering Trivandrum (CET) and an MBA degree from School of Management Studies (SMS), CUSAT. He has over twenty five (25) years experience in hydraulics and pneumatics field. In addition he has several technical papers published in AIMTDR conferences.

• Cutter Suction Dredgers
• Designed by Marine experts
• Built with Marine grade materials and equipments
• Suitable for dredging shallow and narrow water bodies to deep waters

Builder: KSINC

Sub-contractor: APM Marine

Scope: Complete Design including cutter blade, Production Drawings and technical support during construction stage.

Summary: The project was for two dredgers. The design and dimensions were made as per a market study on the performance of existing dredgers and customer survey done on current users in the Kerala waters.

Status: First vessel launched. Second vessel under construction

Principal Particulars:

1. Length overall (LOA) – 16.00 m
2. Length of pontoon – 11.50 m
3. Breadth moulded – 3.5 m
4. Depth moulded – 1.25 m
5. Draught moulded – 0.7 m
6. Maximum dredging depth – 6 m
7. Spud length – 9 m
8. Diameter of discharge pipe – 300 mm
9. Diameter of suction pipe – 355 mm
10. Engine – Catterpillar 3460C: 298 KW (400 BHP) @ 1800 rpm
11. Main Pump – Metso HG 250S: 750 cu.m/h

Navgathi developed the design after an extensive market survey on the type of vessels in the kerala waters and the operational issues associated with them. We could also build up on the past experience of designing a smaller cutter suction dredger for APM Marine. Geroge Mathew, from APM Marine, the key person responsible for this successful project completion, brought extensive operation experience in floating and fixed structures in Kerala waters.

The second vessel is getting ready to launch and in a couple of months these would be delivered to the client after all necessary tests and trials.

Vessels: Six numbers (2011 – 2013)

Type: Handy size Bulk Carrier

Shipyard: Hyundai Mipo Dockyard, Ulsan, S.Korea

Scope: Project management, Shipbuilding supervision

Summary: A typical handy size bulk carrier with cargo gear, folding type hatch covers.

Project Status: Ongoing (Nov 2011)

Principal Particulars:

Length overall (LOA) – 187 m

Length between PP (LBP) – 178 m

Breadth (mld) – 27.8 m

Depth (mld) – 15.6 m

Design draught – 9.8 m

Scantling draught – 10.8 m

We reached the finishing point (of the Nehru boat race) which happened be the boarding point of our boat at about 10:15, only to discover that the boat was not ready to board and that it would take another frothy five minutes before departure. We stepped in to the tourist guest house. It was in poor shape, and not surprisingly without electric power or backup, considering the fact that tourism generates huge amount of revenue to the region. While we were waiting the organizers split the team in to Team A, also known as WINNERS who later changed their name to SIBERIA, and Team B, also known as KIDUS KALAMASSERY. SIBERIA had Anenas, Alice, Anu, Rashid, Sreehari, and Syam whereas KIDUS KALAMASSERY had Biju, Ramesh, Remitha, Sandith, Sushama, and Karthika. The organizers were also put in two teams since they had to play the Survival game which Sandith was conducting. Soon the time came to board the vessel and we all strolled to the boat.

The boat was ready at 11. They started the engine. It was at that moment we realized that we didn’t pick up stones to do the load testing of the bridge (which is a game and will be explained later). Karthika and Sree Hari went out of the boat to pick up stones. They picked the smallest stones they could ever get (for the load testing)!  Anyways! We started our journey. They gave us the welcome drink. We went to the upper deck and let ourselves settle down for a while.

After a few minutes we decided to start the games. The first game was bridge. The game was to build a bridge with raw materials given to you within 30 minutes. The raw materials given were

1)     Ice cream sticks

2)     String

3)     Glue

4)     Putty

5)     Paper and paper clip

The team started making the bridge. Team Siberia started making the London Bridge with lot of pillars!! They didn’t read the question correctly. The question was to build a bridge with span not less than 30 cm and height not less than 7 cm. Since they have violated the rules, the organizers gave them a small clue. They brilliantly picked it up and started reworking the bridge. Finally the teams made their bridges (they should have been in the Army!). Now it is the time for load testing. Everybody knew that the stones won’t be sufficient for load testing. So we used our mobile phones. With those stones and 3 mobile phones the bridge of Siberia collapsed. Then we load tested the bridge of KIDUS KALAMASSARY. It was very strong and obviously they were the winners. 10 points for KIDUS KALAMASSERY!

The second event was a survival game by Sandith. The goals of this Lost at Sea game is to teach the effectiveness of consensus – seeking behavior in task groups through comparative experiences with both individual decision making and group decision making and to explore the concept of synergy in reference to the outcomes of group decision making. The organizers were also put in different teams. Karthika was in team KIDUS KALAMASSERY and Syam was in team SIBERIA. Sandith distributed two copies of the Lost at Sea individual work sheet to each participant. The work sheet contained a scenario where we are lost at Pacific Ocean on a private yacht. Fifteen items are there on board out of which the participants had to choose the most essential items and rank it accordingly. First they had to individually rank it and the group should give a ranking by discussion. The team with the lowest rank wins. The time was one hour. In 30 minutes they completed the individual stories and then the group discussion started. After one hour the game was over. The teams exchanged their group work sheet and started correcting it with the correct ranking given by Sandith. Team SIBERIA got 64 points and KIDUS KALAMASSERY got 75 points. High ranking score is the least score as it denotes the least deviation from the correct answer. So SIBERIA won and they got 10 points!

Then after a short break they started the quiz program. The organizers made power point presentations for the quiz. It included Puzzles, Kerala, Famous Personalities, and Historical Monuments.

After the puzzles we had Kerala lunch with Karimeen fry. The sambhar was great. Then we continued the events. In these four events KIDUS KALAMASSERY won with the help of the stunning performance by Ramesh. They got 10 points again! So clearly KIDUS KALAMASSERY was the winner of the group events.

Then they started Tambola. It was an individual game. The organizers distributed the Tambola cards. It had random numbers on it. Then the organizers start picking up random numbers from the lots they kept and the person who has that particular number on their card has to strike out that number from their card. The person who strikes out the first five numbers will get the third prize. The person who strikes out a complete raw will get the second prize. The person who strikes out the full numbers on the card will get the first prize. That was the rule of the game.  After a brief time of changing lucks Sushama won the third prize. Then it was Rashid’s turn. He won the second prize. Then the luckiest moment of Alice came. She won the first prize.

Then it was the time for prize distribution. Remitha distributed the prize. The organizers got presents for arranging the event.

From the moment we get in that boat, it was only after the prize distribution we began to watch the beauty of Kerala back waters. The program turned out to be so fine that the beauty of the back waters was nothing in front a group of energetic personalities and their enthusiasm. When they began to enjoy the beauty of back waters, there was a sudden silence among all of us. The music in the boat was so mesmerizing.  Those moments were so beautiful.

Meanwhile Syam got a chance to drive the boat.  Others were engaged in enjoying the beauty of backwaters and taking photos. At last they reached the finishing point of their journey. They got out from their boat and took a group photo.

Then they started their return journey. From the last lazy moments they again came into the dancing mood with Karthika’s Tamil songs in the background. Sandith, Karthika, Sree Hari and Rashid started dancing. Anu jumped up for dancing but his head was hit on the roof of the bus and sat down at the same speed. Syam was first reluctant to dance but joined the group for some time.

At last we reached at our office at about 6.45. There came the end of a beautiful outbound.

Job Summary

• Part of the technical team
• Involve in design & production

Responsibilities

• Handle independent design projects
• Manage a team of junior naval architect, engineers and designers

Qualification

• B-Tech in Naval Architecture

Experience

• Over five (5) years relevant experience

Skills

• Should have good grasp of fundamentals in naval architecture
• Should have good experience in handling two or more areas from Hull form development, Stability, Structure design, Maneuvering
• Short stint in production is an added advantage
• Should have excellent written and oral communication skills
• Should have good leadership skills

Send CV to career@navgathi.com with subject, “Senior Naval Architect (Design)“

The workshop of Fundamentals of Pneumatics, a first attempt to separate the basics in fluid power, and fourth in the training series, in Kochi was successfully completed with participants from industry.

Fundamentals of Pneumatics
An understanding of Pneumatics from an Industrial perspective

Current problem – Lack of industrial level training to upgrade the skills of resources in the making low cost automation

A two (2) day interactive seminar aimed at engineers and diploma holders to understand the basics of pneumatics to enable them in the selection, design, assembling, testing and operation of automation systems. This is purely industry oriented program with lots of practical information and case studies inbuilt in it.

Date: Dec 6-7, 2011

Engineers, designers, technicians working in the design, assembly, installation, operation and maintenance of pneumatics systems.

Uday Kumar is the CEO of Mac-N-Hom Systems. He holds a B-Tech in Mechanical Engineering from College of Engineering Trivandrum (CET) and an MBA degree from School of Management Studies (SMS), CUSAT. He has over twenty five (25) years experience in hydraulics and pneumatics field. In addition he has several technical papers published in AIMTDR conferences.