Associate Professor

Research Interests: Adhesion and friction on soft interfaces, Fracture of soft thin sheets, Bio-inspired approaches in design of engineering materials
Email: aghatak[AT]iitk.ac.in
Ph: +91-512-259-7146
Website: http://home.iitk.ac.in/~aghatak/

Highly deformable, soft elastic, viscoelastic and poroelastic materials occur in many different applications e.g. soft tissues, artificial organs, therapeutic patches, shock absorbers, dampeners, platforms for micro-fluidic device, novel biomaterials in biology as stems, roots and leaves, sponges, cartilage layers and bones and so on and so forth. In this variety of situations these materials are exposed to many different forms of mechanical loads, e.g. tension, compression, torsion, bending which, due to the large deformability of these materials and their complex rheological character, can generate such responses which are different from that commonly observed with the liner elastic systems. An example of such a response is the kinking instability which occurs in a cylindrical rod of soft hydrogel when it is bent beyond a critical curvature. It is different from the commonly observed wrinkling instability in thin, soft films or blocks. In our laboratory we study these materials and associated phenomena in the context of adhesion, friction, fracture and failure.

Associate Professor

Research Interests: Thermodynamics, Selective adsorption and separation, Energy storage materials, Wetting transition, Self assembly and crystallization at nanoscale. 
Ph: +91-512-259- 6141
Email: jayantks[AT]iitk.ac.in
Website: http://home.iitk.ac.in/~jayantks
Our focus is to predict the structure, stability and dynamics of various fluids and their mixtures. In particular our interest is to apply and develop molecular simulation methodologies for bulk and confined fluids. To understand the phenomena at interfaces (for example, effect of reactive polymer on the interface adhesion of two immiscible polymers, orientation of solute particles at interface of associating fluids, water-air phase behavior under hydrophobic/hydrophilic surfaces etc) of pure and mixtures of fluids, we apply and develop methodologies within the framework of Molecular Dynamics, Monte Carlo Techniques, Dissipative Particle Dynamics and Brownian Dynamics. In this regard we have recently developed methods for estimating virial coefficient, free energy, pressure and interfacial tension.

Associate Professor

Research Interests: Transport Phenomena,Instabilities in micro-scale free surface flows, Flow through porous media.
Ph:  +91-512-259-6751 (o)
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Website: http://www.iitk.ac.in/che/nt.htm
My research interest is in transport phenomena at small length scales. Current research work is primarily focused on the instabilities in driven micro-scale free surface flows over heterogeneous surfaces. The wetted face of the solid substrate can have heterogeneities such as non-uniform temperature, topographical variations, solid-liquid interactions and so on. These heterogeneities lead to fascinating behavior of the free surface of the thin liquid film. Understanding of the dynamics and instability of such thin liquid film flows can be critical for micro- and nano-applications. Theoretical and computational work is on-going to better understand the dynamics of such flows.

Associate Professor

Research Interests: Stability of fluid flows, Rheology of complex fluids 
Ph: +91-512- 259- 7377
Email: vshankar[AT]iitk.ac.in
Website: http://home.iitk.ac.in/~vshankar/
Research in our group is centered around the areas of fluid dynamics, rheology, transport and interfacial phenomena with a focus on microfluidic systems, biological flows, and meso-patterning applications. Specifically, we address issues related to hydrodynamic instabilities and their manipulation in these settings, for example, as a way to improve transport rates or as a precursor to formation of meso-scale patterns. We use a combination of analytic theory, numerical simulations and experimental observations in our research. Recent results from our group include a comprehensive study of instabilities in deformable tubes and rectangular channels, which have uncovered a host of new instabilities which are absent in rigid tubes and channels. Such instabilities could be potentially exploited in microfluidic devices for improving mixing. We use the spectral method extensively to determine the stability boundaries, and back this up with analytical calculations using asymptotic analyses in particular regimes. More information, including reprints of publications from our group can be found in http://home.iitk.ac.in/~vshankar