Symposium on Current Research in Hydraulic Turbines

Turbine Testing Lab has been organizing International Symposium on Hydraulic Turbines every year with an effort to bring all the researchers in hydropower and hydraulic machines from Nepal and other parts of the world to a common ground and share their experiences and researches. The program has become a global meeting point for enthusiasts in the field of hydraulic turbines to interact with each other, discuss the problems in their part of the world and come up with innovative ideas to solve such problems.

This year, too, TTL successfully conducted One Day International Symposium on Current Research in Hydraulic Turbines – IV on 7 April 2014 at C.V. Raman Auditorium.

The event started with formal inauguration by Prof. Dr. Bhola Thapa, Registrar, Kathmandu University followed by the welcome speech by Dr. Hari Prasad Neopane, HOD, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kathmandu University. Dr. Neopane highlighted the significance of such program and presented the overview of the program. Mr. Sailesh Chitrakar, Research Fellow at TTL highlighted the facts and features of Turbine Testing Lab and also talked about the recent activities, achievements and future plans of the lab.

In his inaugural speech, Prof. Bhola Thapa welcomed all the participants and presenters from different universities with deep gratitude, and wished success for the event.

The presentation session involved 23 Oral Presentations and 14 Poster Presentations. The sessions were chaired by Dr. Hari Prasad Neopane, Mr. Brijesh Adhikari and Dr. Ramesh Kumar Maskey. The participants for the oral presentations were from NTNU; Norway, KU and KMU, South Korea, whereas the undergraduate students from Department of Mechanical Engineering, KU, presented their related project activities as a part of poster presentation.

The presentations were basically focused on the state of art technology of Hydraulic turbines and hydropower. The event discussed the technical challenges in hydraulic turbine design, sediment erosion problems in hydropower plants and their possible solutions, performance issues of turbines and new design philosophies and application methods of hydraulic turbines.

A short closing program was organized after the completion of the last session. Dr. Hari P. Neopane summarized the major issues discussed during the symposium on behalf of session chairs. He also thanked all the participants for delivering good presentations in limited time. Prof. Bim Prasad Shrestha, Associate Dean (Research) of School of Engineering, delivered his closing remarks in the program with token of appreciation for all the chair persons.