Positions Open in Multiphase Flow and Heat Transfer (MFHT) lab

Prof. Janani Srree Murallidharan

Associate Professor , Mechanical Engineering Department
IIT Bombay

S.No Position Project Topic & Details Duration Pre-requisites

1. Project Computational Modelling of Boiling Upto 2 yrs Applicant needs to be
Staff / Heat Transfer using OpenFOAM comfortable with
PhD/ Post- Boiling is an efficient phase- OpenFOAM;
Doc change heat removal process. An Especially familiarity
Position understanding of this complex with coding in the
microscale heat transfer process is OpenFOAM
essential for designing efficient cooling framework is
devices. The microlayer is region preferred.
sandwiched between the bubble
interface and the heater wall.
Maximum heat removal from the
substrate happens in this region. Only
recently some high fidelity
experimental visualisation of this
region has been made. This project will
develop an equivalent high fidelity
physics based microlayer CFD
simulation module to marry with the
existing macro-scale boiling code. This
will enable accurate computational
predictions of the heat transfer
achieved by boiling. The code will be
used to identify efficient heat transfer
regimes in which maximum cooling
can be achieved.

2. PhD/Post- Numerical Studies on Ebullated 2- 3yrs Applicant needs to be

Doc Bed Hydrodynamics using OpenFOAM comfortable with
Position In the petroleum industry, ebullated bed OpenFOAM;
reactors are frequently used in applications Especially familiarity
like hydrocracking and
with coding in the
hydrodesulfurization for upgradation of
heavy vacuum residue into lighter OpenFOAM
hydrocarbons . Ebullated bed reactors framework is
come under the general purview of three- preferred.
phase fluidized bed reactors where gas,
liquid and solid phases are present. Though
ample experimental studies on three-phase
fluidized bed hydrodynamics are available,
there is a scarcity of literature in the
numerical framework. The complexities in
numerical modeling of ebullated bed
hydrodynamics include the (a) presence of
three-phases viz., gas, liquid and solid with
different properties and flow behavior, (b)
presence of multiple interfaces and the
associated interfacial transfer modeling
 difficulties, (c) fluidization of the solid
particles by gas as well as liquid and the
associated selection of models, and (d)
liquid re-circulation and presence of
multiple particle sizes. Few efforts were
made to model this complex phenomenon
in commercial CFD packages
(Panneerselvam et al., 2009; Hamidipour et
al., 2012) using the Eulerian multi-fluid
model, but the models implemented have to
further refined to apply to a wide range of
operating conditions with confidence. In
this project Analysis of present models and
implementation of new models,to predict
ebullated bed hydrodynamics using the
open-source CFD package
OpenFOAM will be undertaken

3. Summer Experimental and Numerical 2 months Fluent familiarity is

Internship study of Pool Boiling Heat Transfer expected. Some
Position ( In nuclear reactors, the fuel rods heat up background is CFD is
May and liquid water which in turn vaporises required. Though
June 2024) forming bubbles. A table top exposure to
experiment is created to study the pool experiments is
boiling and Ansys Fluent is used with preferred, an Interest
Eulerian Multiphase model to study the and willingness in
dynamics. Experimental studies are doing experiments is
used to validate CFD . CFD is used to all that is required
carry on analysis of physics for a wide
parametric space

4. Summer Computational study of 2 months Familiarty with CFD.

Internship Evaporation of liquid film Reasonable comfort
Position ( This study looks at modelling phase level with terminal
May and change at room temperature using a based coding and
June 2024) C++ code. It will involve using an debugging C++ codes
existing code to study evaporation of
liquid film

Contact Details:

Email: js.murallidharan@iitb.ac.in

Interested candidates please email your CV. You are also welcome to share papers you might
have published or project work demonstrating how you will fit in this area.