Kerala PSC Exam Guide for Mechanical Engineers

This article will give you short notes on various social welfare legislation and programs which are important for Kerala PSC examination. The topics covered here include social service legislation like Right to Information Act (RTI), Right to Education Act (RTE), Prevention of atrocities against women and children, food security act and social welfare programs like employment guarantee program, ICDS, TRYSEM, IRDP, DWRA, RLEGP, IAY, JRY, MWS, PMRY, BSY, GKY, SAY, SGSY, Antyodaya Anna Yojana, PGSY, SGRY, Swajaldhara, VAMBAY, PGY, NFWP, Bharat Nirman, PMAGY etc. The following social welfare schemes and programs are frequently asked in Kerala PSC examinations. ICDS Integrated Child Development Scheme ICDS was started in the year 1975 by the then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi . It is accredited as the World's biggest integrated initiative for child welfare . World Bank & UNICEF used to provide assistance to this scheme. The scheme was initiated during the 5th five-year...

This article will give you the basic differences and conceptual comparison between creep test and tensile test. Creep Strength and Tensile Strength are two major mechanical properties of a material. Creep test is used to find out the behavior of the material under creep loading and tension test which is usually done in a Universal Testing Machine (UTM) is carried out to find out the behavior of the material under tensile loading. You are requested to have the basic knowledge of stress-strain curve and creep curve before reading this article. The basic comparison is as follows. Creep Test Vs Tension Test Creep is a slow and progressive permanent deformation of a material at constant stress and at a constant temperature of about 0.4 times the melting point of the material. Whereas in the tension test, the deformation is not that slow and progressive and stress is not constant. It is gradually increasing and we are not much concerned about the temperature factor. Both the spe...

Regenerative Rankine cycle and Brayton cycle with regeneration are provided for increasing efficiency in steam power plant and gas turbine power plant respectively. This article will reveal the basic difference between the two. As you are all aware, in Rankine cycle, the working fluid is water and it changes its state to form steam and you will find a vapor dome in the TS diagram of Rankine cycle. Steam tables and Mollier charts are used to find the property values in Rankine cycle. However, in Brayton cycle, the working fluid is air which does not undergo any phase change. We are treating air as an ideal gas and the equation of state of an ideal gas is used to find the property values in Brayton cycle. Regenerative arrangement in both these cases is accomplished by providing heat exchangers which utilize the high temperature of the expanded gases in the turbine exhaust. Brayton cycle can be classified into closed Brayton cycle and open Brayton. Among this, only closed Brayton cycl...

This article will give you the basic difference between Second Law Efficiency and Isentropic Efficiency in Thermodynamics. Both these concepts are very important in association with 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. The same concept is asked for many interviews including Indian Engineering Services and viva questions. The conceptual answer for the same is not available in any of the Thermodynamics textbooks. Before reading the explanation of this topic, you are advised to go through the concept of 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, Availability, and Irreversibility. Both  Second Law Efficiency & Isentropic Efficiency revolves around the same idea but is interpreted or characterized differently. Both are proportional to each other and gives a measure of the degree of irreversibility. The difference between the two can be conceptually understood by the following Temperature-Entropy diagram. Fig. Illustration of Second Law Efficiency & Isentropic Efficiency Consider this T...

This article gives you the basic comparison between reheat Rankine cycle and regenerative Rankine cycle. This comparison will help you to find out distinguishable features of reheat Rankine cycle and regenerative Rankine cycle. Prerequisite before reading this article is the basic idea of Rankine cycle, PV and TS diagram of reheat Rankine cycle and regenerative Rankine cycle. The differences of reheat cycle compared to regenerative cycle are discussed as follows. All the steam turbine thermal power plants what we are seeing today is centered around the qualitative thermodynamics of Rankine cycle, which is the vapor standard cycle for the same. It consists of two reversible adiabatic process two isobaric processes and the working fluid undergoes a phase change. The topic of our discussion, that is regeneration and reheating is a method of increasing efficiency of Rankine cycle. Note that reheat need not give higher efficiency and it is primarily attached to the power plan...

If you are a graduate in Mechanical Engineering or a diploma holder in Mechanical engineering, and you want to know the job opportunities for you in Kerala through various Kerala Public Service Commission (PSC) exam, then this article can really help you. Many of you may be aware that, there is recruitment process through Kerala PSC exams for Mechanical engineers in various Government departments in Kerala, but you might be unaware of the job profiles for which the recruitment are carried out. This article gives some lights to those categories of people. The details of KPSC Mechanical jobs for the eligible aspirants are discussed in the following paragraphs. For a graduate in Mechanical Engineering, some of the core Mechanical engineering job profiles through Kerala PSC recruitment are as follows. The major four categories of jobs are being discussed. Assistant Engineer in various departments of  Govt. of Kerala  like Irrigation, Legal Metrology, Harbour Engineering,...

Jet propulsion is the basic physics associated with all the airplanes, jets, missiles and rockets. All these vehicles except rockets run with the help of jet engines which are air breathing engines. However, rockets will not belong to the category of air breathing engines, rather they are self-contained engines. The jet engines are further classified into Turbojets Turbofans Turboprops Pulsejets Ramjets Scramjets This page will give you the basic differences between all these engines so that the Mechanical engineer or the Aeronautical engineer in you can identify the basic concepts behind these engines. So fasten your seat belts, let's take off. Before going into the basics of these engines, one must be very thorough with the concept of Mach Number. Mach Number is a dimensionless number which manifests the compressible nature of the flow field. It is defined as the ratio velocity of flow to the acoustic velocity (Velocity of sound) at the given temperature of the fl...

A boiler in every power plant is a type of heat exchanger. Heat from the combustion of fuel in the combustion chamber is transferred to the feed water circulating inside the boiler which ultimately evaporated to form steam which is utilized in a steam turbine attached to the boiler. So a heat transfer surface is essential for a boiler to perform its function. Heat transfer surfaces of a boiler are classified in to: Primary heat transfer surfaces - Eg: Evaporator, Super heater, Reheater Secondary heat transfer surfaces - Eg: Economiser, Air Preheater Primary heat transfer surfaces These are heat transfer surfaces which are the most essential for a boiler without which a boiler cannot perform its function. They utilize heat from the combustion of fuel and is transferred to the working fluid in the boiler directly.  Evaporator and superheater are the primary heat transfer surfaces and if the boiler employs reheating, then reheater is also considered as a primary heat...

A boiler is the most important component in a thermal power plant. Boilers are used to generate heat in thermal power plants so that it helps in generation of steam for the steam turbine. A boiler is basically a heat exchanger. According to the flow of water and hot gases, a boiler is classified in to fire tube boiler and water tube boiler.  Fire Tube Boiler Vs Water Tube Boiler From its name itself, fire tube boilers are those boilers in which hot gases flow inside the tube and water outside the tube. Water tube boilers are just reverse. For a fire tube boiler, there is a limitation with the maximum operating pressure which can be achieved and also with its maximum size which is represented by the diameter of the shell. This is because hoop stress of the boiler shell increases with pressure and shell diameter. This limitation in maximum pressure and size is ultimately associated with an additional cost of material of the boiler shell which arises...