International symposium on “Current Research in Hydraulic Turbines” was held for the seventh time on 4th April, 2017 as CRHT-VII after the successful completion of the previous six events in 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. Other renewable energy source was included as additional topics for the symposium.
It was a one-day program which was held at CV Raman Auditorium, Senate Hall and Mini Auditorium. The event was scheduled under two parallel sessions led by respective chairs. Topic of the papers/presentations was divided into 2 broad thematic areas:
1) Development of test rig, tool and system (9 presentations)
2) Modeling, simulation and experimental techniques (8 presentations)
The event began with the welcome speech by Dr. Hari Prasad Neopane, Member Secretary at TTL and HOD at DOME, and followed by the presentation on recent activities and future directions of TTL by Dr. Biraj Singh Thapa, Assistant Prof., DoME. Tom Solberg, Managing Director from International Centre for Hydropower (ICH) presented remarks and keynote speech on the symposium. Prof. Tri Ratna Bajracharya, Dean, Institute of Engineering, Pulchwok delivered his remarks on the symposium and highlighted the ties between IOE & KU and importance of hydropower in Nepal. Prof. Dr. Ram Kantha Makaju Shrestha, Vice Chancellor at Kathmandu University delivered the inaugural speech focusing on the necessity of implementing the research outputs. Featured presentation was then given by Mr. Hitendra Dev Shakya, Director, Nepal Electricity Authority. It was followed with the presentation from Associate Prof. Dr. Baoshan Zhu, Tshingua University, Beijing, China and Prof. Dr. Bhupendra K. Gandhi, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee, India. The inaugural program was concluded with the featured presentation of Mr. Ishwar Man Deshar, Plant Manager, Himal Power Limited.
One session was chaired by Prof. Bhupendra K. Gandhi from IIT, Roorkee and Dr. Megh B. Bishwakarma from Hydrolab, whereas the other session (in parallel) was chaired by Dr. Baoshan Zhu from Tsinghua University and Dr. Hari Pd. Neopane from KU. Each presenter was given 15 minutes: 10 minutes to present and 5 minutes was allocated for questions and answers. Each session was concluded by the certificate distributions. It was followed with the brief visit to Turbine Testing Lab by the guests, presenters and participants.
Professor Gandhi gave remarks on behalf of session chairs which shed light on the technical sessions of the whole program followed by certificate distribution to session chairs, key note speakers and volunteers. Vote of thanks was delivered by Prof. Bhupendra Bimal Chhetri, Dean, School of Engineering, Kathmandu University.
Prof. Bhola Thapa, Registrar at KU delivered the closing speech who thanked organizers, sponsors and participants. Prof. Thapa highlighted the history of TTL establishment, CRHT symposium, and the future research directions. He too remembered the close ties between KU & NTNU since ages and hoped for the close collaboration among ICH, KU, IIT and Tsinghua University in the days to come.
The event was coordinated by Mr. Nirmal Acharya, Research Associate at TTL. Ms. Pragati Poudel and Ms. Kritika Bhandari, final year mechanical students emceed the program.
Full program detail is here.
Some glimpses of CRHT-VII’17 Symposium
