A year on, troubled IISc lab back in operation with safety upgrades

A year after an accident resulted in the death of a student, an advanced technologies lab involved in hypersonic and shockwave research at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has come back to life after extensive safety upgrades.

Faculty and staff said inspections were being carried out to ensure safety standards were in place at the Laboratory for Hypersonic and Shock Wave Research (LHSR) and that experiments had restarted at the 50-year-old facility in December 2019.

“We have had three papers published through experiments after the lab reopened,” Professor K P J Reddy said.

On December 5, 2018, the explosion of a gas cylinder killed one engineer and seriously injured three others. The deceased, Manoj Kumar, 32, and the three injured engineers were employees of a promising new startup called Superwave Technology, helmed by two professors of the IISc’s Department of Aerospace.

However, a faculty member with knowledge of the matter said the lab was still undergoing safety checks. “It is still working up towards operability,” he said.

Cause of accident

The IISc has been officially reluctant to discuss the cause of the accident. The institute’s director, Dr Anurag Kumar, referred the matter to the registrar, V Rajarajan, who did not respond to queries for information.

An eyewitness to the accident told DH that a worn-out valve on a liquid hydrogen cylinder had been responsible for the explosion. The facility employs four sophisticated shock wave tubes using liquid hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and helium to generate shock waves.

“The explosion occurred when a group of faculty and students were holding a going-away party for a student who was travelling to the United States. Most of the group had just cleared the lab where the cylinders were stored when the explosion occurred. If they had lingered for a few minutes later, there would have been many casualties,” the witness said. “Safety measures were non-existent.”

According to the faculty member, two committees were formed to investigate the accident. One of these, the Pandian committee, submitted a report, making several recommendations.

“These recommendations have been implemented,” a senior-level source said, adding that a sum of Rs 2 crore had been expended to ensure safety measures and protocols.

Faculty members at the Department of Aerospace described work at the lab as being of the fundamental research variety. The lab will not only be used for aeronautical design testing but will also be involved in testing new applications such as using shock waves to heal injuries.