H V Sudhakar Nayak - the Scientist who Saves Metals

They say rust never sleeps. This is especially true in coastal areas where no machinery can remain unaffected by corrosion. But efforts are on to give such deterioration permanent rest.

Thanks to H.V. Sudhakar Nayak, professor and metallurgist at the National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK), Suratkal, a practical solution to the problem of rust is in sight. A study by him has initiated among scientists a war against corrosion.

After completing his Ph.D. under K.I. Vasu, expert in metallurgy and professor at the Indian Institute of Science, Prof. Nayak began a study of corrosion and contributed to the use of new corrosion-free material in the aerospace industry. His work on "Zincoloy-2", funded by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, was useful to nuclear research. Prof. Nayak worked on high-temperature corrosion of incoloys at Max-Planck Institute for Iron and Steel in Dusseldorf, Germany, with special reference to coal gasification plants.

He received grants from the Aeronautical Research and Development Board to study sulfide cracking. He has contributed several technical papers in this area.

Using grants from the Board of Research in Nuclear Science, he worked on austenitic stainless steels, recognised as a path-breaking study. He worked on corrosion of reinforcement in concrete in marine environments, which drew the interest of the ship building industry.

With support from the Ministry of Shipping and Transport, Prof. Nayak took up academic research on corrosion inhibition.

A few students and members of faculty worked for Ph.D. degrees under his guidance. Aqueous corrosion of alloy ductile iron is his contribution to corrosion research.

Prof. Nayak is a recipient of Mascot Award and Prof. Balachandra Award. A council member of the Indian Institute of Metals, he is on the editorial board of journals.

Prof. Nayak, who is acknowledged by his students as an excellent teacher, says that four per cent of the GDP of the country is laid waste by corrosion.

Metallurgists around the world have tried to find out why the Titanic went down after hitting an iceberg in 1912. A programme telecast in a popular channel suggested that corrosive material was used to build the ship.

Modern ship-builders have experts such as Prof. Nayak to screen metals.