“Aero engine modules such as low and high pressure compressors and turbine use casings which are joined by bolted flanges. These flange joints need to be leak proof and resist the operational load. The resultant weight is an important criterion. In designing the aero engine components, engine OEMS are looking for innovative flange design.” This was what written on pamphlet that fell in the hands of Avinash Gupta, a third-year aeronautical engineering student of GITAM University, Hyderabad campus. Mr. Avinash, a native of Chakulifarm village in Sambhalpur district of Odisha, is son of a small trader Mahendra Gupta, who runs a kirana shop .
The pamphlet was part of the ‘Infotech Open Innovation Challenge’ which was distributed at several other educational institutes as well. But Avinash took the challenge to the heart and started working on that from day one. Working day and night, , he has prepared the preliminary design by March 9 and the final design was handed over to the organisers by March 15.
More than 200 participated in the open challenge competition and finally the design made by Mr. Avinash got the first prize. The judges in the panel included - one from Infotech, one from Airbus and one from Pratt and Whitney, a US-based aerospace manufacturer with global service operations.
“I have worked continuously sometimes not sleeping for three successive days and made the design which stood first in the competitions. This has boosted my confidence to work further in research,” Mr. Avinash told The Hindu .
“The design is more than 90 per cent accurate to the requirement of the industry and it is cent per cent leak proof. It was also designed in the given weight criteria, which is very critical in aerospace designing,” said Prof. Yagya Dutta Dwivedi, aeronautical engineering.
