TRIUMF is Canada’s particle accelerator centre. VIIT is collaborating with TRIUMF on design and development of the support structure for multi Photomultipliers (mPMTs) and sub-systems in the proposed Water Cherenkov Test Experiment (WCTE). VIIT has designed the cylindrical structure in SS304 which is roughly 3.5m tall and has a diameter of 3.9m. Its weight is 2 tons and will carry a weight of 128 mPMTs amounting to more than 5 tons.
Shubham Garode, a M. Tech. a student from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, VIIT is working at TRIUMF as Graduate Research Assistant since last one year. He has played a stellar role in the design of the structure. Two M. Tech. students from Department of Civil engineering and four B. Tech. students from Mechanical engineering are carrying out simulations to ensure the safety of the structure. They are being guided by Prof (Dr) S. G. Joshi from the Civil department, Prof (Dr.) A. R. Mache and Prof S. S. Chinchanikar from Mechanical department.
Niranjan Deshmukh, a M. Tech. (Mechanical) student of the next batch is working on design and development of waterproof feedthrough of CAT5 cable for the m PMTs. He was supposed to go to TRIUMF but could not due to COVID pandemic. He is now developing a set up for testing of the feedthrough at high pressure and also one for soak testing. He is being guided by Prof (Dr.) S. S. Chinchanikar, Prof (Dr) A. P. Kulkarni from Department of Mechanical Engineering, Prof (Dr) D. Bhatkhande from Department of Chemical Engineering, Vishwakarma University and Prof (Mrs) A. P. Kulkarni from Department of Engineering and Applied Sciences. A group of Undergraduate students are working on materials and optical properties of black sheets which could be “perfectly dark” in ultrapure water and which will not contaminate the water in WCTE detector. They are being guided by Prof (Dr) R. S. Bhalerao-Panajkar and Prof (Mrs) A. P. Kulkarni of Department of Engineering and Applied Sciences.