Droplet and Spray Transport : Paradigms and Applications

This book focuses on droplets and sprays and their applications. It discusses how droplet level transport is central to a multitude of applications and how droplet level manipulation and control can enhance the efficiency and design of multiphase systems. Droplets and sprays are ubiquitous in a variety of multiphase and multiscale applications in surface patterning, oil recovery, combustion, atomization, spray drying, thermal barrier coating, renewable energy, and electronic cooling, to name but a few. This book provides two levels of details pertaining to such applications. Each chapter delves into a specific application and provides not only an overview but also detailed physical insights into the application mechanism from the point of view of droplets and sprays. All chapters provide a mix of cutting-edge applications, new diagnostic techniques and modern computational methodologies, as well as the fundamental physical mechanism involved in each application. Taken together, the chapters provide a translational perspective on these applications, from basic transport processes to optimization, and from design to implementation using droplets or sprays as fundamental building blocks. Given its breadth of coverage, the book will be of interest to students, researchers, and industry professionals alike.

Prof. Saptarshi Basu is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. His current research interests include combustion instability, flame–vortex interaction, droplet level transport, multiphase combustion, spray atomization and breakup, water transport characteristics in fuel cells and general areas of heat and mass transfer. Prof. Basu has published over 100 articles in various frontline journals. Prof. Basu is a recipient of the DST Swarnajayanti Fellowship in Engineering Sciences from the Government of India. He also received the KN Seetharamu medal from the Indian Society of Heat and Mass Transfer for his contributions in multiphase transport. Prof. Basu is a member of the ASME, ISHMT and Combustion Institute, and a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering.

Prof. Avinash K Agarwal joined the IIT Kanpur in 2001. His areas of interest include IC engines, combustion, alternative fuels, conventional fuels, optical diagnostics, laser ignition, HCCI, emission and particulate control, and large bore engines. He has published 200+ international journal and conference papers. Prof. Agarwal is a Fellow of the SAE (2012), ASME (2013), ISEES (2015) and INAE (2015). He has received several awards such as the prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award-2016 in Engineering Sciences, Rajib Goyal prize-2015, NASI-Reliance Industries Platinum Jubilee Award-2012; and INAE Silver Jubilee Young Engineer Award-2012. 

Prof. Achintya Mukhopadhyay is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Jadavpur University, Kolkata (Calcutta), India. He also served as Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras). Prof. Mukhopadhyay’s major research interests are chemically reacting flows, multiphase flows and heat transfer, and microscale flows and heat transfer. His current research activities focus on droplet and spray combustion, structure and dynamics of partially premixed flames, nonlinear dynamics and chaos in combustion systems, instability of liquid sheets and atomization. Prof. Mukhopadhyay has over 200 research publications including 90 international journal publications to his credit. Prof. Mukhopadhyay is a Fellow of the West Bengal Academy of Science and Technology and life member of the Indian Society of Heat and Mass Transfer, Indian section of the Combustion Institute, Indian Society for Energy, Environment and Sustainability and a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers (India).

Dr. Chetankumar Patel is currently a Project Scientist at the Engine Research Laboratory, IIT Kanpur, where he also completed his PhD in 2016. He graduated from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, LD College of Engineering, Ahmedabad in 2002. Thereafter he completed his Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering with a specialization in IC Engines and Automobiles from the same institute in 2007. Dr. Patel taught Mechanical Engineering for four years at engineering institutions in India. His primary areas of research include microscopic and macroscopic spray investigations, in-cylinder spray and combustion visualization, in-cylinder combustion investigations, emissions, noise and vibration investigations, and biofuels. He has published several peer-reviewed papers in high- impact journals.