Abstract:
Two fluids separated by an interface add complexity to understanding both the flow field and the interface's evolution over time. While numerical methods for studying single-phase flows date back to the 1930s, methods for two-phase interfacial flows are comparatively newer, originating in the late 1970s, and remain under active development. Concurrently, advances in computational power and reduced costs have enabled the numerical study of multiphase problems. Interfacial flows, prevalent in nature and engineering applications, manifest as waves, bubbles, droplets, jets, and more. These flows are often coupled with physicochemical processes such as phase change, heat/mass transfer, chemical reactions, and surfactant effects. Although proprietary software exists for multi-physics simulations, they have not been thoroughly tested across a wide range of parameters and coupled physics scenarios. This limits scientists and engineers to exploring Multi-physics interfacial problems using Direct Numerical Simulations. In this context, we have developed open-source, scalable codes to model various physicochemical phenomena at fluid-fluid interfaces, including mass transfer, phase change, and the solutal Marangoni effect. Our numerical framework has been benchmarked against analytical and experimental data and applied to investigate bubble dissolution in turbulent flow, gas transfer in breaking waves, and surfactant effects on rising bubbles.
Biography:
Dr. Palas is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. Before this, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Princeton University, working on various problems of bubbles, droplets and waves collaborating with organizations in the United States, France, and Germany. He earned his Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay and his M.Tech. from IIT BHU, Varanasi. During doctorate, his research focused on interfacial waves using theoretical analysis and Direct Numerical Simulations. He was also actively involved in an industry-funded project by BASF on viscous droplet breakup in turbulent flows. His contributions were acknowledged with the Milton Van Dyke Award at the Gallery of Fluid Motion at the American Physical Society annual meeting. His broad research interests include Multiphase Flows, Fluid-Structure interaction and Computational Fluid Dynamics.