Research

We combine simulations, experiments and physics-informed machine learning to connect what happens between particles and molecules to how a material behaves in a process. Our work is grouped into five themes below. Each theme lists the papers behind it, and the projects open to new students are listed under Join us. The themes contribute to the three global challenges of Monash's Impact 2030 strategy, i.e., climate change, thriving communities and geopolitical security, as marked under each heading.

Soft materials for food, health and minerals

Food and health | Mining and critical minerals
Monash Impact 2030 | Thriving communities | Geopolitical security

Many of our projects start from an industrial or societal problem. With colleagues at Monash we study how proteins from faba and mung beans gel when heated and how high-moisture extrusion turns them into plant-based meat. We also study how liquids wick through paper channels for point-of-care diagnostic devices, and how nanocellulose hydrogels can be tuned for 3D printing. Our final-year students are validating the RheoCare microfluidic blood rheometer of Haemograph against laboratory rheometry, and our undergraduate students measure the flow of deep eutectic solvents, i.e., green solvents for recovering critical minerals from electronic waste. In the ARC Centre of Excellence for Enabling Eco-Efficient Beneficiation of Minerals, we work with Kevin Galvin's group at the University of Newcastle on the flow of fine mineral slurries and its effect on gravity separation of fine particles. Before joining Monash, we developed a portable Schlieren set-up that shows mixing problems in frozen and thawed therapeutic protein solutions, which led to a US patent application.

Applications. Plant-based foods, medical diagnostics, sustainable materials, critical-mineral recovery, pharmaceutical manufacturing.
Partners. BioPRIA, Haemograph, ARC Centre of Excellence for Enabling Eco-Efficient Beneficiation of Minerals, University of Newcastle, Merck.

Selected papers

Alhassani, M., Loh, M., Chakraborty-Banerjee, P. and More, R. V., How close to a Boger fluid is a hydrated deep eutectic solvent? Rate-independent viscosity and a small first normal-stress difference in tetramethylammonium chloride–citric acid, under review (2026).
Nam, Y., More, R. V., Skylas, D., Kasapis, S. and Dhital, S., Gelation profiles of pulse proteins: Implications of dry and wet extraction of faba and mung bean, Food Hydrocoll. 184, 113260 (2027).
Nam, Y., More, R. V. and Dhital, S., Heat-induced gelation and rheology of pulse protein: Implications of dry and wet extraction, Food Hydrocoll. 180, 112851 (2026).
Karki, S., More, R. V., Attenborough, E. and Dhital, S., High-moisture extrusion of plant-based meat analogues: Challenges and opportunities, Foods 15, 3388 (2026).
Tripathi, A., More, R. V., Corrie, S. and Garnier, G., Predicting wicking dynamics of Newtonian liquid droplet in paper channels, J. Colloid Interface Sci. 725, 141520 (2027).
Ara, Z. A., More, R. V., Garnier, G. and Batchelor, W., Modulating the 3D-printability with nanocellulose hydrogels, J. Colloid Interface Sci. (2026).
Ng, K. M. P., et al., Nanocellulose-enabled sustainable reinforcement of nitrile butadiene rubber: A comprehensive review, Sustain. Mater. Technol. 49, e02233 (2026).
More, R. V., Barrio-Zhang, A., Ahmadzadegan, A., Dabiri, S. and Ardekani, A. M., Monitoring heterogeneity in therapeutic samples using Schlieren, Int. J. Pharm. 609, 121096 (2021).

Dense suspensions and pastes

Energy and electronics | Manufacturing
Monash Impact 2030 | Climate change

Battery electrode slurries, concrete, ceramic pastes and 3D printing inks are crowded with solid particles. When such a suspension is pushed hard, the particles come into contact and rub against each other. As a result, the paste can thicken suddenly or jam a pipe or nozzle. We build particle simulations that resolve the friction, roughness and rolling resistance at each contact, and we use them to predict when a suspension flows, thickens or jams. We showed that rougher particles bring on shear thickening at lower shear rates and lower particle concentrations, and we proposed a friction law, based on the Stribeck curve, that captures shear thinning, the Newtonian plateau and shear thickening in a single model. The same simulations helped explain why silver pastes made of rough particles print better-defined electrode lines on solar cells. Current work extends these models to stretching flows, to particles of many sizes and to suspensions of fibres.

Applications. Battery and solar-cell pastes, concrete, 3D printing, impact protection.
Partners. Pharos Materials, Purdue University, MIT, KTH.

Selected papers

More, R. V., Strain-transport superposition in shear-thinning dense non-Brownian suspensions, arXiv:2601.18805 (2026).
More, R. V. and Ardekani, A. M., Unifying disparate rate-dependent rheological regimes in non-Brownian suspensions, Phys. Rev. E 103, 062610 (2021).
Hilali, M. M., Pal, S., More, R. V., Saive, R. and Ardekani, A. M., Sheared thick-film electrode materials containing silver powders with nanoscale surface asperities improve solar cell performance, Adv. Energy Sustain. Res. 3, 2100145 (2021).
More, R. V. and Ardekani, A. M., A constitutive model for sheared dense suspensions of rough particles, J. Rheol. 64, 1107 (2020).
More, R. V. and Ardekani, A. M., Roughness induced shear thickening in frictional non-Brownian suspensions: A numerical study, J. Rheol. 64, 283 (2020).
More, R. V. and Ardekani, A. M., Effect of roughness on the rheology of concentrated non-Brownian suspensions: A numerical study, J. Rheol. 64, 67 (2020).
Khan, M., More, R. V., Banaei, A. A., Brandt, L. and Ardekani, A. M., Rheology of concentrated fiber suspensions with a load-dependent friction coefficient, Phys. Rev. Fluids 8, 044301 (2023).
Khan, M., More, R. V., Brandt, L. and Ardekani, A. M., Rheology of dense fiber suspensions: Origin of yield stress, shear thinning, and normal stress differences, Phys. Rev. Fluids 8, 064306 (2023).
Khan, M., More, R. V. and Ardekani, A. M., A constitutive model for sheared dense fiber suspensions, Phys. Fluids 35, 013337 (2023).

Colloidal gels and thixotropy

Food and health | Energy and electronics | Manufacturing
Monash Impact 2030 | Thriving communities

Yogurt, paint, toothpaste and many battery slurries are colloidal gels, i.e., networks of sticky microscopic particles that hold their shape at rest and flow when stirred. We use coarse-grained simulations to connect what happens at each bond, whether two particles can slide, roll or twist against each other, to the yield stress, ageing and thixotropy of the whole gel. Our simulations of depletion gels show that attraction and cluster formation alone do not explain the yield stress, and that constraints on the relative rotation of bonded particles are needed as well. We have since built a contact model for rough colloids in which bumpy surfaces lock together even when they are only lightly pressed, and we are using it to study how gels age, recover after shearing and remember their shear history. In addition, with colleagues at Edinburgh and MIT, we study how these rolling constraints change the structure of depletion gels.

Applications. Paints, foods, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, battery slurries.
Partners. MIT, University of Edinburgh, Australian Synchrotron.

Selected papers and talks

More, R. V., Sliding, twisting and rolling anchored constraints (STRAC) for Brownian suspensions, under review (2026).
More, R. V. and McKinley, G. H., To roll or not to roll(?) is the yield stress (in soft particulate gels), arXiv:2504.03672 (2025).
Xu, H., More, R., McKinley, G. H., Poon, W. and Royer, J., Rolling constraints in depletion-induced colloidal gels, talk GN30, Society of Rheology 97th Annual Meeting, Boston (2026).

Elastic liquids for cooling and processing

Energy and electronics | Manufacturing
Monash Impact 2030 | Climate change

Adding a small amount of long polymer to a liquid makes it elastic. An elastic liquid climbs a rotating rod instead of forming a dip, and in curved flows it can become unstable and stir itself where a simple liquid would flow smoothly. We turned the rod-climbing experiment into a rheometer that measures the normal stresses of polymer solutions at shear rates below the sensitivity of commercial rheometers, and we showed that increasing the second normal stress difference weakens the climbing and can reverse it. In cone-and-plate flows we mapped how elasticity, inertia and shear thinning together set the onset of elastic instabilities, and in a Taylor–Couette cell we measured how these instabilities change heat transfer. Hence, this work is the basis of our search for polymer-based liquid coolants for electronics and electric-vehicle batteries. We also study capillary breakup and filament stretching of polymer solutions, and how the drop size of a spray from a full-cone nozzle depends on the feed pressure and on the distance from the nozzle.

Applications. Liquid cooling of batteries and data centres, coating, spraying, fibre spinning, 3D printing.
Partners. The Lubrizol Corporation, MIT, VensoGrow.

Selected papers

More, R. V., A second opinion on the Weissenberg effect: The role of the second normal–stress difference in rod-climbing effect, Phys. Fluids 38, 033110 (2026).
More, R. V., Pashkovski, E., Patterson, R. and McKinley, G. H., Effect of elasto–inertial instabilities on heat transfer in Taylor–Couette flow, J. Non-Newtonian Fluid Mech. 351, 105654 (2026).
More, R. V., Patterson, R., Pashkovski, E. and McKinley, G. H., Elasto-inertial instability in torsional flows of shear-thinning viscoelastic fluids, J. Fluid Mech. 985, A37 (2024).
More, R. V., Patterson, R., Pashkovski, E. and McKinley, G. H., Rod-climbing rheometry revisited, Soft Matter 19, 4073 (2023).
Ben Jemaa, B., He, V., Trifunović, M., Duke, D. and More, R. V., Weber-number scaling and the distance dependence of drop size in full-cone pressure-swirl sprays, arXiv:2610.20650 (2026).

Particles and organisms in stratified fluids

Environment
Monash Impact 2030 | Climate change

Oceans and lakes are layered, with denser water lying below lighter water. Marine snow and plankton move through these layers, and the layering changes how they settle and swim. Using direct numerical simulations, we showed that settling spheroids turn edge-wise in a stratified fluid, unlike the broad-side-on orientation they take in a uniform fluid, and that stratification slows swimming microorganisms and changes how they interact with each other. We reviewed this field in the Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics. Current work looks at anisotropic particles and dilute suspensions in stratified shear flows and, with IIT Bombay, at stratified turbulence with rotation for climate models.

Applications. Marine snow and plankton in the ocean, settling and mixing in lakes and reservoirs, climate models.
Partners. Purdue University, KTH, IIT Bombay (IITB-Monash Academy).