Ramadas Narayanan

• PhD (Mechanical Engineering)
• Discipline Leader - Mechanical Engineering at Central Queensland University

The rapid growth of energy consumption in densely populated urban areas with limited land space, especially in hot climates, poses significant challenges. The Australian University of Kuwait conducted a study using two portable cabins to explore energy-saving techniques. One cabin integrated an off-grid solar photovoltaic (PV) system to evaluate it...

The energy consumption of buildings, particularly for space heating and cooling, is a major global concern. It accounts for a substantial portion of household energy use and varies based on environmental factors and climate conditions. Environ- mental factors highly influence energy-saving strategies of buildings in different climate areas. Address...

The process of threshing is crucial in separating seeds from harvested plants. Kimseed has recently developed the Multi-thresher CW09(b) for research labs and seed vendors. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of Kimseed's threshing equipment for sesame and determine the optimal setting parameters. Laboratory experiments were conducted wi...

The building sector’s energy consumption has significantly increased due to climate change, emphasizing the need to develop sustainable low-energy buildings using experimental and computational tools. As a joint project between Kuwait and Australia, two portable cabins with internal sizes of 2 m × 2 m × 2.80 m, made from 75 mm thick sandwich panels...

Maintaining the stability of the electrical grid becomes more challenging every year. The rapid growth of renewable energy sources (RES) is one of the key reasons. The residential sector is also a large contributor to the destabilisation of the electrical grid due to daily changes in demand. Domestic load is one of the most significant factors in c...

Creating low-energy buildings in arid, hot desert climates like Kuwait poses significant challenges. This research examines the potential of Bio-PCMs and cool roof coatings as energy-saving methods in three hot climate locations, using both experimental and computational approaches. Two identical portable cabins were meticulously constructed, and t...

The development of low energy buildings in hot desert like climates such as Kuwait, requires strategies that are rather challenging. It is believed that BioPhase change material (Bio-PCM), cool roof (CR) and solar-assisted airconditioning (SAC) systems are suitable energy saving techniques for hot environments. Five experimental rooms are designed...

The development of low energy buildings in hot subtropical and desert like climates such as Australia and Kuwait, requires strategies that are rather challenging. Five (5) experimental rooms are going to be built to assess these energy saving techniques for a research program jointly between Kuwait and Australia. Before the construction phase, thes...

Nanofluids application has now become a conventional cooling medium in PVT technology. However, there is little knowledge in the current literature about the PVT operational conditions for optimum performance. This paper aims to investigate the PVT optimum operating conditions with CuO nanofluid application. TRNSYS simulation platform is used in th...

Many blueberry farmers use an open-sided hoop-type greenhouse to enhance agricultural output. A common problem in multi-span greenhouses is the loss of ventilation that scales with the increase in span number. This paper examines the effects of reducing the greenhouse height and adding covers to the formerly open sides in a two-span greenhouse to u...

The development of low energy buildings in hot subtropical and desert like climates such as Australia and Kuwait, requires strategies that are rather challenging. Five (5) experimental rooms are going to be built to assess these energy saving techniques for a research program jointly between Kuwait and Australia. Before the construction phase, thes...

Maintaining mechanical ventilation has been identified as a potential strategy for reducing the risk of virus infections. However, in hot and humid climatic conditions, delivering fresh air to a building comes at an energy cost and could impact occupant comfort due to the persistent need for simultaneous cooling and dehumidification. In this paper,...

Japanese Larch wood and Bangladeshi Ipil Ipil wood are two potential candidates for pyrolysis and biofuel production, and they are widely available and fast-growing trees, but the study into these timbers is scant in the literature. In order to evaluate the potential for biofuel production, the kinetic and pyrolysis characteristics of both woody sa...

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a viable technique to address food waste (FW) problems by converting FW into sustainable energy. Despite the advantages of the AD process, large-scale AD plants like in Germany and the USA have not been developed in Australia. Therefore, this paper aims to study the technological, economic, and environmental feasibility...

The use of air conditioning in buildings to provide a comfortable environment accounts for up to 75% of the electricity consumed in Kuwait for the hot season from April through to the end of October. The widespread adoption of air conditioning systems in buildings has resulted in an increased demand for electricity. This has led to an increased pea...

Jaggery is a kind of unrefined non-centrifugal sugar (NCS) used mainly in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Traditionally, jaggery is produced by concentrating sugarcane juice in open pans with the help of bagasse combustion. However, due to thermal energy loss with flue gases and an unscientific approach in plant construction, jagger...

Photovoltaic (PV) systems generate electricity from sunlight using the photovoltaic effect. The electrical efficiency of a PV system in standard test conditions (STC) ranges between 18-24%. This efficiency falls further by 0.4-0.5 %/ 0 C with every degree rise in PV cell temperature above STC. Research shows that containing this cell temperature ri...

Biogas as an energy source is increasing its popularity in both small and large-scale applications. The anaerobic digestion (AD) process requires heat to produce biogas effectively, which can be supplied via a solar system. The suitability of integration of solar thermal energy in anaerobic digestion was researched through this paper. With the help...

Airconditioning accounts for up to 60% of the energy use in buildings in Kuwait. Also, airconditioning consumes about 70% of the electricity during peak hours. Widespread airconditioning system installation increases the total energy consumption resulting in a large carbon footprint and raises the peak load demand, causing excessive strains on the...

In any processing facility, the cost of production is critical and will determine whether it remains operational, as high production costs affect its viability. In the case of a ginger processing facility, one major cost is the burning of gas to provide thermal energy to its dehydrator. Research shows that the temperature and humidity of the air in...

Food waste is a type of organic waste generated by restaurants, food processing plants, households, and commercial and institutions. This study aims to assess the sustainable biofuel, electricity production and greenhouse gas emission reduction potential of food waste using anaerobic digestion technology. Food waste data was collected from the Aust...

Jaggery is a kind of unrefined non-centrifugal sugar (NCS) used mainly in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Traditionally, jaggery is produced by concentrating sugarcane juice in open pans with the help of bagasse combustion. However, due to thermal energy loss with flue gases and an unscientific approach in plant construction, jagger...

With limited roof space available, the selection of the most suitable solar energy systems to meet hot water and electricity demands for a household in a cost-effective way is always a challenge. This paper presents a comparative study of solar energy collection methods to meet Australian household's energy demands using both solar thermal collecto...

The negative impacts of the increasing number of air conditioning systems in Australia include excessive strain on grids and associated blackouts, higher electricity costs and associated carbon emission issues. The installation of sustainable cooling technologies such as solar absorption cooling systems provides a promising alternative. However, th...

Reducing building energy consumption is a significant challenge and is one of the most important research areas worldwide. Insulation will help to keep the building’s desired temperature by reducing the heat flow. Additionally, proper insulation can provide an extended period of comfort, leading to reduced building energy requirements. Encapsulated...

Reducing building energy consumption is a significant challenge and is one of the most important research areas worldwide. Insulation will help to keep the building’s desired temperature by reducing the heat flow. Additionally, proper insulation can provide an extended period of comfort, leading to reduced building energy requirements. Encapsulated...

The extensive use of fossil fuels and the environmental effect of their combustion products have attracted researchers to look into renewable energy sources. In addition, global mass production of waste has motivated communities to recycle and reuse the waste in a sustainable way to lower landfill waste and associated problems. The development of w...

The technical and economic attractiveness of a solid desiccant based evaporative cooling system depend on several factors: Configuration of the system components and their individual performance, availability of cheap but reliable regeneration heat source. In the tropical and subtropical regions, the air conditioning systems are expected to address...

With the advent of human-induced climate change, an effort towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions has been a priority for many communities and households. Pool heating is highly energy intensive and it accounts for major part of energy bills and a large carbon footprint. It is important to investigate the possible ways of reducing the energy con...

Over the past 40 years, energy consumption has increased dramatically to become a significant crisis faced today. The peak demand is growing at approximately 50% greater than the demand base growth in many Australian cities, which, in turn, requires greater finite resources and infrastructure to meet the required generation capacity needed. Current...

The operation of a solid desiccant evaporative cooling system largely depends on the dehumidification ability of the desiccant wheel and mathematical models are an effective tool to predict the transport behaviour of this wheel. A complete theoretical model would account for both the gas-side resistance, which is due to the convective heat and mass...

Abstract With the advent of human-induced climate change, an effort towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions has been a priority for many communities and households. Pool heating is highly energy intensive and it accounts for major part of energy bills and a large carbon footprint. It is important to investigate the possible ways of reducing the e...

Air conditioning accounts for up to 50% of energy use in buildings. Increased air-conditioning-system installations not only increase total energy consumption but also raise peak load demand. Desiccant evaporative cooling systems use low-grade thermal energy, such as solar energy and waste heat, instead of electricity to provide thermal comfort. Th...

Heat-driven air-conditioning systems are systems that use low-grade thermal energy like solar energy and waste heat rather than electricity to cool the air. These systems can produce significant energy savings, have low global warming and ozone depletion potential, and also ensure higher indoor air quality. This chapter aims to disseminate the fund...

Hot rolling is among the most widely used manufacturing techniques. However, rolling mills are major resource consumers; thus, urgent rationalisation is required in the relevant industrial systems. Roll pass design (RPD) is a principal factor that determines process efficiency, product quality and resource consumption. Therefore, it is important to...

Desiccant evaporative cooling systems are potential environment-friendly alternative to energy-intensive vapour compression chillers. They operate on an open heat-driven cycle consisting of a combination of a dehumidifier, a sensible heat exchanger and evaporative coolers. A desiccant wheel is the heart of the heat-driven cooling system and it uses...

The current socioeconomic and climate trends imply that the sustainability of large industrial systems such as rolling industry must be urgently improved. Present design applications do not take sufficient advantage of big data accumulated in rolling mill repositories. At the same time, the nowadays information processors and analytical theories al...

While it appears that a consensus is crystalising with regard to the hierarchy of concepts such as “knowledge”, “definition” and “information”, there is an increasing urgency for improving definitions of these terms. Strategies such as “knowledge extraction” or “data mining” rely on the increasing availability of digital (electronic) records addres...

Human-computer interface was utilized to amplify the power of a hybrid algorithm that combines fuzzy logic, regression analysis, and non-linear optimization to extract knowledge from a roll pass design database. This strategy is applied to grooves with vertical and horizontal symmetry which are employed in initial passes to roll a broad range of st...

Desiccant evaporative cooling system is a potential environment-friendly alternative to conventional vapour compression chillers. A desiccant wheel is the heart of this heat driven cooling system and it uses a solid desiccant for dehumidification with silica gel being most widely used. The desiccant material is coated, impregnated or formed in a pl...

CONTEXT Engineering Mathematics is a core course/subject for many engineering programs and is included in the early years of the program in most universities. At Eynesbury Institute of Business and Technology in Adelaide, South Australia, this course is offered in a pathway program. In this course, a combination of factors prevents students from su...

The purpose of this paper is to diagnose and suggest remedies for issues in postgraduate research such as lack in transparency, sharing and application of existing and newly created knowledge. A multidisciplinary team identified the critical factors in large industrial systems, the nodes that are the most amenable to improvement, and how can such i...

Structured abstract CONTEXT The final year project is an important part of an engineer's education. This segment of the curriculum provides undergraduate students with an opportunity to apply and extend their skills and knowledge. It provides students with an opportunity to undertake an extensive independent exploration of a particular topic. In ad...

BACKGROUND The outburst in the internet-based sharing of knowledge has opened a Pandora’s Box of the third millennium (the phrase "to open Pandora's box" means to perform an action that may seem beneficial, but that turns out to have unexpected consequences). Scientific and engineering contents are distributed by means of the high-speed internet; h...

Desiccant/evaporative cooling systems offer an environmentally benign alternative to conventional vapor compression chillers. A desiccant wheel is the heart of this heat driven cooling system and it uses a solid desiccant for dehumidification with silica gel being the most widely used. Proper design of the wheel is important for the successful oper...

A number of mathematical models has been developed to predict the heat and mass transfer behavior of moisture transport in air dehumidification applications, with rotary desiccant wheels. A complete model would account for the following mechanisms of transport. 1. convective transport of heat and moisture between the air and the desiccant surface (...

There are different kinds of assessments, which are suitable for Engineering Mathematics. The developments in Computer Based Education have been driven by advances in Instructional Technology and the increased capability of the technology to respond to the needs of students. Ensuring that the assessment methods adopted reflect both the aims and obj...

Engineering Mathematics is compulsory subject in foundation year of all engineering programs. This will be one of the staring subjects they will be taking in this university. Their paces of learning have very wide range. In addition, the current educational environment does not allow them to remedy their deficiencies in mathematics at their own pac...