Transport phenomena is fundamental to Chemical Engineering. The research verticals in group are:
(1) Low Reynolds-number flow, and viscous instabilities.
a. Enhanced oil recovery and reservoir flooding optimisation; role of viscous fingering in CO2-EOR, and CO2 storage; multiphase transport in porous media.
b. Mechanism of fracture propagation in hydraulic fracturing; shale gas hydrate exploration.
c. Particle migration and settling in high solid loading flows; solid propellant grain casting; phase separated flows.
d. Electrokinetic flow in micro and nano-fluidic systems.
(2) Liquid crystal hydrodynamics and its applications.
a. Colloidal dynamics and self-assembly in the anisotropic medium; influence of external field perturbation.
b. Design of novel liquid crystal sensing platform for rapid and label-free detection of complex molecules.
c. Active matter dynamics and colloidal interactions.
d. Adaptive thermal camouflaging using LC based coating for infra-red (IR) stealth.
(3) Green and sustainable methods of water treatment and air purification.
a. Developing continuous visible-light photocatalytic based systems; degradation of emerging pollutants – pharmaceutical drugs and pesticides.
b. Pressure-swing aDsorption process.
c. Carbon capture solutions through multistage membrane based separation route, and utilization.
d. Membrane based filtration processes–micro, ultra, nano and reverse osmosis
(4) Clean energy initiatives: membrane based ion exchange electrolyser for green Hydrogen production.
(5) Modelling of multiscale problems involving heat, mass and fluid flow (Multiphysics): industrial process intensification.
a. Combined fluid flow and heat transfer in heat exchanger and cryogenic flow systems
b. Heat and mass transfer problems in reactors, cooling towers, multistage separating columns, etc.
c. Design and process network optimisation based on pinch analysis, energy recovery and recycle.
d. Heat transfer and solid structure interaction in FFF based 3D printing.
e. Thermal battery discharge simulation and design optimisation.
f. Physical vapour transport of single crystal growth: wide bandgap semiconductor material synthesis process.
g. Molecular dynamics simulation of transport processes, at high Knudsen number.
h. Use of AI based methods for interpreting scientific data linked to research applications.
