My research activities are in the areas of (i) compact heat exchangers: perforated plate type (PPHEs), (ii) pressure wave expansion based refrigerators, (iii) heat transfer using nano-fluids, and (iv) cryogenic rocket propulsion. The PPHEs are constructed of several high thermal conductivity perforated plates. The plates are alternately arranged with insulating spacers in between. Several PPHEs were built by diffusion bonding between perforated copper plates and stainless steel spacers. Perforated copper plates were fabricated by photo chemical etching. The perforations are of 0.6 mm diameter while the plate and spacer thickness are 0.4 and 0.5 mm respectively. The fabricated heat exchangers, having 75 and 100 plates, were tested for their performance at cryogenic temperature.
A pressure wave expander is a device where energy is transferred from one fluid to the other through a shock wave. It is usually constructed of a long tube in which a high pressure gas is suddenly released through the rotation of a valve. In one part of the rotation the tube is exposed to high pressure when a shock wave is created at the interface of the inlet gas and the existing gas inside the tube. The tube is connected to the low pressure in the next part of the rotation of the valve. In this period the rarefied gas near the inlet to the tube is further expanded causing a drop in temperature.
Nanofluids in a direct absorption solar collector (DASC) can directly store solar engry in the fluids. Several nanofluids e.g. carbon black, Boron nitride and their hybrids have been tested for their suitability as working fluids in direct absorption solar collectors.
The research activities in cryogenic rocket propulsion includes (i) preformance prediction of nozzle protection system of a cryogenic rocket engine during testing onground (ii) preformance prediction of rocket engine through multisensor data fusion techniques.
Principal Investigator
- Analysis of Rocket Propulsion Test Data using Data Fusion Techniques
Co-Principal Investigator
- Operation and maintenance of the liquid nitrogen plant at Cryogenic Engineering Centre VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS/CENTRES OF IIT KHARAGPUR
Ph. D. Students
Arijit Das
Area of Research: Heat Exchanger
Pritam Dey
Area of Research: Heat exchanger
Shariq Zafar
Area of Research: Pressure wave refrigerator
Sudeep Kumar Gupta
Area of Research: Thermoacoustic
