Research

My research interest is mainly focused on investigating aerothermochemistry of nonequilibrium and rarefied flows. I have worked on the development of an add-on nonequilibrium module for the ANSYS Fluent CFD solver to investigate numerous high-speed nonequilibrium flows. I have also worked on the development of the Macheret-Fridman dissociation model for CFD. Additionally, I have experience working in the diverse interdisciplinary field of research, such as modeling heat and mass transfer in various lyophilization (freeze-drying) processes.

Some of the highlights of my research involvements are below.

High-Speed Flows

  • Nonequilibrium Aerothermochemistry
    • Developed MF-CFD dissociation model for nonequilibrium air
      • Derived macrospcopic rates for heteronuclear molecules
      • Improved MF-CFD prediction of mean vibrational energy lost in dissociation
    • Investigated various two-temperature dissociation models for vibrational nonequilibrium flow
    • Implemented nonequilibrium aerothermochemistry models in a commercial CFD package
      • Developed an add-on nonequilibrium module for ANSYS Fluent CFD solver
  • Reentry Aerothermodynamics
    • Studied reentry aerothermodynamics of a CubeSat with drag-sail using DSMC and CFD
    • Calculated reentry trajectory to assess predictible reentry corridor
    • Investigated slip boundary conditions for rarefied flow simulations

Kinetic Theory

  • Discontinuos Galerkin Fast Spectral Method for Boltzmann Equation
    • Implemented an asymptotic-preserving scheme for temporal discretization
    • Verified the solver for variety of fundamental rarefied flows
    • Investigated microchannel flows using a deterministic Boltzmann solver for near-continuum flows

Pharmaceutical Processess

  • Sensitivity Analysis
    • Studied the effect of pressure and temperature deviations during a primary drying lyophilization process using uncertainty quantification techniques
  • Equipment Capability
    • Analyzed the equipment capability limit of various lab scale and manufacturing scale lyophilizers using CFD

High-Lift Aerodynamics

  • CFD Modeling
    • Assessed CFD prediction capabilities of high lift flow fields for HiLiftPW-3
    • Developed grids for various aircraft configurations