Basant Parida

Dissertation on - Some Studies on the Local Buckling Behaviour of Thin Tensile panels with Rectangular Cutouts

With specialization in Aircraft Structures

Graduated from the University College of Engineering ( Presently - Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT), an Autonomous University with a credible Accreditation), located in Burla, India - the site of India's longest earthen Dam - the "Hirakud Dam" in Odisha.

Conducted advanced research on the fatigue and fracture behavior of certain engineered materials as a part of Integrated High-Performance Turbine Engine Technology (IHPTET) program of specific interest to the U. S. Air Force

Pursued research on the assessment of fatigue crack propagation, fracture toughness and the endurance behavior of the Russian make aircraft grade Aluminum alloys such as D 16 - ATV and others. These Al-alloys were supplied by the Antonov Aircraft Factory located in the outskirt of Kiev and are extensively used by MiG series aircraft - many variants of which are flown by the Indian Air Force, the fourth largest Air Force in the world.

Senior Principal Subject Matter Expert and Director, Innovation, Transportation Group, QNA

• Key Accomplishments at QinetiQ North America(QNA):

  • Provided innovative conceptual designs and Finite Element Analyses of several variants of mine blast-resistant seats for performance evaluation and potential use in combat vehicles - under a U. S. Army Research Laboratory program - (2003 – 2004)

  • Offered innovative egress mechanisms to enhance crew safety under locomotive collision and derailment conditions - under DOT/Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Program (2003 – 2005)

  • Provided assessment and validation of explosive fuel vapor conditions within the locomotive fuel tank and its mitigation method - under DOT/FRA Program (2005 – 2008)

  • Provided (in support of another group of Foster-Miller/QNA) Finite Element Analysis and fatigue assessment of “Boat Trap” manifold assembly for evaluation of its endurance against the repeated deployment of a known conflagration charge - (2004 – 2005)

  • Provided (in support of another group of Foster-Miller/QNA) innovative use of FEA and component testing techniques including RPG-Net mesh size optimization and hardpoint configuration toward the defeat of Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPG) -IRAD initiative (2005 – 2009)

  • Under the Koch Membrane Systems (KMS) Composite High-Pressure Vessel End Cap Design initiative (2009) - offered innovative designs and design validation (for compliance with ASME Pressure Vessel Code) through Finite Element Analysis of end caps for KMS composite high-pressure vessels used in KMS desalination plants

  • Offered an innovative design solution, Finite Element Simulations, prototype development, and testing of a novel Shock Energy Absorber (SEA) for use in locomotives to prevent override under the head-on-collision scenario - DOT/FRA Program on Advanced Cushioning Device to Prevent Locomotive Override (2008 - 2010)

  • Provided (in support of TSG Products Group) the structural analysis toward design validation and structural integrity evaluation of the Q-NET support structures for several variants of military personnel carrier vehicles under a major Customer Initiative (2010 – 2011)

  • Under the DOT/FRA Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) Program (2010-2012) - Offered an innovative design concept for an optimized Audible Warning Device (AWD) for use in locomotives with potential for minimization of noise impact on wayside communities while maintaining public safety at highway-rail grade crossings (later patented)

• Under the DOT/FRA Program on diesel vapor reclamation in freight locomotives (2010-2012) - provided a novel design with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation support of another colleague, scaled prototype testing and full-scale integration of a diesel vapor reclamation system with a freight locomotive
• Under the Internal Research and Development (IRaD) Initiative of QNA TSG 2012 - provided with an innovative design, analysis, FEA simulations, and laboratory/ full-scale prototype testing of several variants of novel shock energy absorbers (later patented with USPTO). Typically applied research performed includes, but is not limited to, simulated vehicle blast effects mitigation against land-mine/IED attack, crash energy management of helicopter landing gear, and protection against in-line collision of safety-critical railway rolling stock. The magnitudes of crash energy dissipated in prototype tests were on the order of 1 million ft-lb in high energy blast tests and 107,000 ft-lb in a 27,000 lb weight drop hammer test. Developed the ability to tailor innovative solutions to absorb/dissipate blast energy up to and beyond one million ft-lb with predictable peak dynamic force or vertical acceleration magnitude. On successful completion of several IRaD programs including fully loaded freight car ramp tests at varying speeds in collaboration with KeyStone/Amsted Rail, prototype novel SEA units were developed and successfully tested up to certain impact speeds for potential railroad applications.

Deputy Director, NAL, and Head of Structural Integrity Division (For the most part)

Key Accomplishments during the Tenure at NAL:

• Took the leadership role during my tenure to successfully complete 23 sponsored and in-house projects of over INR 12 crores or USD 2.52 Million value for sponsoring agencies such as Boeing (BCA), IAF (AHQ & HQMC), Indian Navy, ADA - National Team, RWRDC, DMRL, HAL, etc. Some broad program highlights are only listed here: 
• Indian Air Force (IAF) Program on Fatigue Life Extension of a MiG 21 fighter airframe through full-scale fatigue test.  On completion of the airframe full-scale fatigue test in collaboration with HAL Nasik and CEMILAC, recommended a substantial percent airframe life extension to a large fleet of IAF fighter aircraft - over the OEM provided design life along with a substantial Forex-saving to the IAF. The successful execution of this program earned the National Aeronautical Prize in 2006 offered by the Aeronautical Society of India    
• Invited by the Indian Air Force and the Indian Navy to join as a Member of their Expert Committees for the aging aircraft Time Between Overhaul (TBO) extension, Total Technical Life Extension (TTLE), and also in the event of military aircraft crash/ collision investigation.
• As an Expert Committee Member of the Commercial Aircraft Accident Investigation Board, constituted by the Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Govt. of India, assisted the DGCA to identify the root causes of several transport aircraft accidents in India
• Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) of India - Program on Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) – provided design validation and structural integrity evaluation as well as certification testing of graphite-epoxy composite wing boxes of LCA under the room and elevated temperature conditions. Later, on successful completion of required airworthiness tests by ADA, the LCA has been inducted into the Indian Air Force as "TEJAS" - an    Indigenously Developed Fourth Generation Fighter Aircraft
• International Collaboration Program with Boeing Commercial Aircraft (BCA), Seattle on Damage Tolerance Analysis (DTA) of Lug Joints – provided DTA results on Boeing supplied lug joints through Finite Element Analysis and an elaborate matrix of constant amplitude as well as spectrum load fatigue tests. Boeing had provided their proprietary commercial aircraft fatigue load spectrum for the testing
• Invited twice during 1993-1994 to exchange ideas on collaborative research with the scientists of the US Air Force Materials Directorate at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio - under the U.S. Air Force “Window on Science” program and later jointly published the results of the collaborative research in International Journals and Conference Proceedings.
• As Senior Quality Control Manager (SQCM), a position approved by the Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Govt. of India, performed the task of Test Report Signatory and oversaw structural analysis and testing protocol of an All Composite Trainer Aircraft (HANSA) - airframe toward compliance with statutory airworthiness certification requirements.
• As the chairman of the materials selection committee and a member of the Management Committee of the 14-seater light transport aircraft (SARAS) design and development project at NAL, provided the know-how for the compliance with statutory airworthiness certification requirements under FAR Part 25
•  Evaluated the structural integrity of graphite-epoxy composite panels subjected to high-energy impact damage (HEID) by fragment simulation projectiles (FSP) and also panels having barely visible impact damage (BVID) for LCA structural applications. Also evaluated were the integrity of composite panels with and without ply-drops as well as the bolt-pull-through strength.

• Organized a National Seminar on Aging Aircraft Life Extension Technologies in NAL - well attended by the IAF/Indian Navy personnel including four Air Marshals (5-Star General) of the Indian Air Force

• As a member of the Govt. of India, Scientific Delegation visited several advanced research facilities of the Chinese Aeronautical Establishment (CAE) to evaluate the scope of collaborative research and presented two scientific papers at the Xian Conference on Composite Materials in 1995

• Availed the Opportunity to showcase the quality of aeronautical research conducted in India in general and at NAL, in particular through the publications/presentation of papers in several International Journals/Conferences organized by the ASTM International and other institutions in the USA and other countries over the years

Senior NRC Resident Research Associate

Key Accomplishments at WPAFB, Ohio:

• Performed analysis and testing of advanced engineered materials such as titanium aluminides and Ti-1100 toward the evaluation of fatigue crack propagation and damage tolerance behavior.
• Conducted fundamental research work to characterize fatigue behavior of small fatigue cracks emanating from notch roots
• Pursued innovative modeling and simulation to predict fatigue crack growth behavior in inter-metallics while accounting for the magnitude of the applied load, temperature, and dwell time with and without an applied load
• Published the results of  these research in international journals, proceedings of international conferences held in Hawaii, Montreal and Singapore, and in Special Technical Publications (STP) of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM)

Faculty of Aerospace Engineering

Key Accomplishments at IIT :

• Last served as a professor and the Head of the Aerospace Engineering Department
• Offered undergraduate and graduate courses on Statics, Dynamics, Strength of Materials, aircraft structures, aircraft design, experimental mechanics, fatigue and fracture mechanics
•  Supervised undergraduate and graduate student projects and supervised as well as adjudicated dissertation theses of Ph. D. scholars
• Performed sponsored research on a large number of Government of India – Ministry of Defense - Aeronautics Research and Development Board (AR&DB) projects related to structural fatigue, fracture mechanics, and remotely controlled flight vehicles
• As Co-Principal Investigator of the “Calcutta Metro Railway Project” executed by the Indian Institute of Technology, performed scale model instrumentation and research to evaluate “piston effect” and the mass of ventilation air requirements due to high-speed train movement in the underground tunnel
• Offered consultancy support to the Executive Mechanical Engineer, Kharagpur Railway Workshops of Indian Railways on the Fatigue Failure Prevention of High-Speed Railway Rolling Stock Components
• Developed new course curricula, setup structural test laboratory and offered several undergraduate courses in Aeronautical Engineering to the first batch graduating aeronautics students at the Military Technical College, Baghdad - as a Visiting Professor under the Government of India Foreign Assignment Scheme during 1983 - 1985
• Under a sponsored AR&DB project, designed, developed and successfully tested a high capacity Catapult Launcher for the launching of Remotely Piloted Vehicles (RPVs) of up to 50 kg all-up-weight (AUW). This was later used for the launching of NISHANT - RPV prototypes developed by the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), Bangalore
• By an invitation of the Fracture Division Head of the European Group on Fracture (EGF) - later renamed as the European Structural Integrity Society (ESIS), I joined the EGF as an Invited Member from India in 1986 and presented a paper in EGF-6, held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• As a Coordinator of Educational Technology, representing IIT Kharagpur in the "Five IITs  Coordinated Educational Technology Programme" of the Ministry of Education, Govt. of India,  I was instrumental in setting up the infrastructural facilities including a full range of SONY equipment integration. The Educational Technology Center at IIT had initiated the development of educational modules for Computer-Assisted Education (CAE), which in later years supported IIT Kharagpur's Distant Education Program
• As the Head of Aerospace Engineering, I was thrown a challenge by Mr. Russi Mody, the then Chairman, IIT Kharagpur Board of Governors (BOG) in January 1988 to build an air-strip/a semi-prepared runway (with his donated fund) to land an airplane at the south end of the Agricultural Engineering Dept. - within a record time of two months. It was intended to be later used as a Glider/Hang Glider Club of IIT for the benefit of IITans interested in flying. The air-strip was made in time with some guidance from the Kalaikunda Air Force Station. Mr. Modi had safely landed his King Air airplane within the IIT Campus in March 1988. He had addressed the Convocation and safely flew back to Calcutta.