This work will investigate in detail, how wind-generated ocean waves arise, become rough and eventually break using theoretical and compuational (CFD) models. We also plan to collaborate with wave modelling groups in India / France towards this. 

The vast majority of flows in our daily experience are turbulent and yet we see patterns all around us. Ordered arrays of cloud streets, (turbulent) wind-driven waves with distinct wavelengths, and---for a more exotic example---Jupiter's red spot all testify to the ability of ordered patterns to arise and persist amidst turbulent fluctuations. How such large scale patterns emerge and persist is a fundamental open question; from a practical perspective, one would like to know how turbulent fluctuations affect the large-scale patterns.

This project will address problems involving fluid flow and mass transfer in the human body, specifically in the lungs and gut. We are interested in using mathematical models to understand how inhaled particles (allergens, pathogens, drugs) mix and spread through the lung airways, how nutrients are taken up by the intestines, and other similar biomedical problems. These questions require a multi scale modelling approach to deal with the wide range of spatial and temporal scales across which flows occur in the human body.

Bioenergy options, such as ethanol, compressed biogas (CBG), and biopower, are expected to play an important role in the future energy mix, considering their potential to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. However, biomass resources are limited and seasonally available. Moreover, the availability of biomass is increasingly impacted by climate change. Therefore, it is essential to plan a biomass utilization strategy for bioenergy, considering these complexities. The objective of this project would be to use an optimization framework to answer these questions.

Turbulent, dense fluid-particle flows are commonly encountered in engineering and natural process, transport of suspensions in chemical and pharmaceutical industries, bed load sediment transport, movement of sand dunes, impingement of jets on planetary surfaces. High speed fluid flows on dense beds are complex in nature because of the coupling between the fluid and solid phases. Most of the studies, reported in the literature have focused either dilute phase turbulent flows or dense phase solid system with laminar flows.

Nanoparticles show new and interesting properties different from bulk materials due to their extremely small size (diameter), large specific surface area and spatial anisotropy. It is thus critical to understand the variables that control its synthesis, leading to a desired application. Control of mean nanoparticle size, particle size distribution and specially, anisotropic particle shapes is the first step in many of these applications, involving enhanced adsorption and reaction rates.

Drying of drops is also a multi-step process, involving surface evaporation and transfer of moisture from the bulk to the surface, and the transfer of heat from the ambient to the drop. The drop size and morphology depend on the bulk transport and surface drying, and the enhancement of convective transport processes due to turbulent fluctuations.

The project will focus on the development of an all-iron redox flow battery, particularly employing non-aqueous electrolytes. Although all-vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) have been successfully developed and commercialized, their widespread deployment is constrained by resource availability and cost, especially in the Indian context. In this regard, iron-based redox flow batteries present a promising and more sustainable alternative. However, several challenges remain for iron-based systems.

It has been reasonably established that catalytic chemical oxidation and electrochemical oxidation are not fundamentally different or unrelated processes. Rather, they appear to be different manifestations of the same underlying electrochemical mechanism. In this context, the project aims to develop a more unified framework for comparing chemical and electrochemical oxidation pathways, building on the work conducted by previous students.

This is an experimental research project centered on the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (CO₂) into formate or other high-value chemical products (1,2). The work will explore the design, synthesis, and application of metal and alloy-based catalysts, with a particular emphasis on their integration into gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs). One of the features would be to investigate the effect of gas composition on the products.