Research Fields

Molecular Dynamics (MD)

MD is a computer simulation of physical movements of atoms and molecules in the context of N-body simulation. The atoms and molecules are allowed to interact for a period of time, giving a view of the motion of the atoms. In the most common version, the trajectories of atoms and molecules are determined by numerically solving the Newton's equations of motion for a system of interacting particles, where forces between the particles and potential energy are defined by molecular mechanics force fields. The method was originally conceived within theoretical physics in the late 1950's but is applied today mostly in chemical physics, materials science and the modeling of bio-molecules.

Fracture Mechanics

Fracture mechanics is the field of mechanics concerned with the study of the propagation of cracks in materials. It uses methods of analytical solid mechanics to calculate the driving force on a crack and those of experimental solid mechanics to characterize the material's resistance to fracture.

In modern materials science, fracture mechanics is an important tool used to improve the performance of mechanical components. It applies the physics of stress and strain behavior of materials, in particulart, e theories of elasticity and plasticity, to the microscopic crystallographic defects found in real materials in order to predict the macroscopic mechanical behavior of those bodies. Fractography is widely used with fracture mechanics to understand the causes of failures and also verify the theoretical failure predictions with real-life failures. The prediction of crack growth is at the heart of the damage tolerance mechanical design discipline.

Bio-Mechanics

Biomechanics is the study of the structure and function of biological systems such as humans, animals, plants, organs, fungi, and cells by means of the methods of mechanics. Biomechanics is closely related to engineering, because it often uses traditional engineering sciences to analyze biological systems. Some simple applications of Newtonian mechanics and/or materials sciences can supply correct approximations to the mechanics of many biological systems. Applied mechanics, most notably mechanical engineering disciplines such as continuum mechanics, mechanism analysis, structural analysis, kinematics and dynamics play prominent roles in the study of biomechanics.

Thermo-fluid modeling

Thermo-fluid modeling consists of four branches of mechanical engineering in a package- thermodynamics, heat transfer, fluid mechanics along with combustion. The group members have done research on natural and forced convection heat transfer, nanofluid heat transfer, magnetohydrodynamics convection. Recently they are working on turbulence and computational fluid dynamics. Software like COMSOL Multiphysics, ANSYS, OpenFoam are used in numerical simulation of probelms involving heat transfer and fluid. In near future, group members wish to work on molecular analysis of fuels.

Renewable Energy

With increased demand of energy, renewable energy is replacing conventional energy sources in many field. Around the world wide, researchers are investigating more cost-efficient and reliable source of renewable energy to meet the need. Researchers in this group, primarily investigated prospects of various renewable energy sources like wind power, solar cooling, low head hydro power etc. Later they also gave emphasis on solar cell material and improving heat transfer in solar thermal collector. Though their present research interest focus mainly on molecular dynamics and thermofluid modeling, they wish to work in this sector in future again.

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD)

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a branch of fluid mechanics that uses numerical analysis and data structures to solve and analyze problems that involve fluid flows. Computers are used to perform the calculations required to simulate the interaction of liquids and gases with surfaces defined by boundary conditions. With high-speed supercomputers, better solutions can be achieved. Ongoing research yields software that improves the accuracy and speed of complex simulation scenarios such as transonic or turbulent flows. Initial experimental validation of such software is performed using a wind tunnel with the final validation coming in full-scale testing, e.g. flight tests.