Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH) is a premier institute of science and technology established in 2008. IITH has been consistently ranked in the&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/reports/" rel="noopener noreferrer">top 10 institutes</a>&nbsp;in India for Engineering&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nirfindia.org/2021/EngineeringRanking.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">according to NIRF</a>&nbsp;making it one of the most coveted schools for science and technology in the country.

IITH offers&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/academics/under-graduate/">undergraduate programs</a>&nbsp;in all the classical engineering disciplines, applied sciences, design, as well as several modern interdisciplinary areas. Students are given a flexibility to explore a broad set of areas, and potentially pursue a minor or double major in a discipline that is not their own. Students who wish to seek a deeper understanding of their own discipline are strongly encouraged to get involved in cutting-edge research with the help of a faculty to mentor them, and earn an Honors in their own field.

The very foundation of IIT Hyderabad is based on&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/research/">research and innovation</a>. The vibrant research culture is evident from the number of patents and publications that IITH produces consistently every year. IITH offers&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/academics/programmes-offered/">graduate programs</a>&nbsp;at both a masters, and a doctoral level, in several diverse areas. There are separate programs for technology, design, science, and liberal arts. The&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/academics/post-graduate/">MTech program</a>&nbsp;is offered in various modes and durations to cater to the ever-growing need of postgraduate level professionals in the country.

IITH encourages and supports&nbsp;<a href="https://iic-iith.netlify.app/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">innovation and entrepreneurship</a>&nbsp;at every stage. The minor program in entrepreneurship is open to all students of IITH, and many of the courses are offered by industrialists who are entrepreneurs themselves. There are various&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/research/centres-incubators/">innovation centers and incubators</a>&nbsp;that promote entrepreneurship and help mentor young innovators. IITH has been very successful in building tie-ups with leading academic institutions around the globe.

IITH enjoys a very special relationship with Japanese universities and industries that goes beyond academic and research collaborations. In fact, some of the iconic buildings in IITH campus will carry the signature of Japanese architecture.

IITH creates a unique holistic ecosystem for education that offers interactive learning, a very flexible academic structure, cutting-edge research, strong industry collaboration, and entrepreneurship. This is an environment which enables students and faculty to translate their dreams into realities.

IIT Hyderabad

A wide spectrum of electrokinetic studies is modeled as isothermal ones to expedite analysis even when such conditions may be extremely difficult to realize in practice. Going beyond the isothermal paradigm, we address here the case of flow induced electrohydrodynamics, commonly streaming potential flows, in a situation where finite temperature gradients do exist. By way of analyzing a model problem of flow through a narrow parallel-plate channel, we show that the temperature gradients applied at the channel walls may have a significant effect on the streaming potential, and, consequently, on the flow itself. Our model takes into consideration all the pertinent phenomenological aspects stemming from the imposed thermal gradients, such as the Soret effect, the thermoelectric effect, and the electrothermal effect, by a full-fledged coupling among the electric potential, the ionic species distribution, the fluid velocity and the local fluid temperature fields, without resorting to ad hoc simplifications. We expect this expository study to contribute significantly towards more sophisticated future endeavors in actual development of micro- and nano-devices for applications simultaneously involving thermal management and electrokinetic effects. © 2013 American Physical Society.

World University root node

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Fulltext

Physical Review E - Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics

Electrohydrodynamics within the electrical double layer in the presence of finite temperature gradients

The present paper critically analyzes, for the first time, the heat transfer characteristics associated with thermally fully developed combined electromagnetohydrodynamic flows through narrow flow conduits, considering electrokinetics effects, for the constant wall heat flux condition. In order to maintain the generality of the problem under consideration, the liquid flow is actuated by a combination of imposed pressure-gradient, electrokinetic effects and additional electromagnetic interactions. The alterations in the thermal transport phenomenon, induced by the variations in the imposed electromagnetic effects are thoroughly explained, in a pin-pointed manner, through an elegant analytical formalism. The essential features of the electromagnetohydrodynamic flow, and associated heat transfer characteristics, through the narrow confinement, are clearly highlighted by the variations in the non-dimensional flow velocity, non-dimensional temperature profile and the Nusselt number. Moreover, the influence of the imposed electromagnetic effects on micro/nano-scale thermal transport characteristics is clearly differentiated from other inherent effects like Joule heating and viscous dissipation. The implications of the constant wall temperature condition are also briefly discussed. The present endeavor has far-reaching implications towards the development of state-of-the-art electro-magneto-mechanical devices, with improved efficiency and functionality, for applications in the field of micro-scale thermal management. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

Thermal characteristics of electromagnetohydrodynamic flows in narrow channels with viscous dissipation and Joule heating under constant wall heat flux

Microfluidics and Microscale Transport Processes

Fluid friction and heat transfer in microchannels

Contrary to the common belief that fluid friction unilaterally determines the thermal characteristics of a microfluidic device, we show here that fluid frictional characteristics of a microfluidic device may essentially be thermally tuned, delineating a non-intuitive two-way coupling. Our experiments reveal that the interfacial phenomena triggered by thermal alteration of interfaces with certain topographical and wettability characteristics may reduce the interfacial friction to a considerable extent. This has far-ranging scientific and technological consequences towards obtaining improved throughput in microfluidic devices with applications ranging from biotechnology to electronics cooling. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.

Applied Physics Letters

Thermally activated control of microfluidic friction

In this paper, we review the literature on flow frictional and heat transfer characteristics of single-phase liquid flows through microchannels. The work accentuates the existing discord between experimental observations of microscale transport process characteristics and the corresponding theoretical predictions on the basis of the classical paradigms. The role of microscale effects in inducing such disparity between experimental and theoretical frameworks, as indicated by various researchers, is critically discussed. Theoretical models and empirical correlations, proposed in the literature, for comprehending microscale flow and thermal characteristics are also highlighted for ready reference. In closure, aspects of microscale liquid flow and heat transfer requiring further scrutiny are identified, and possible future research directions are prescribed. © 2012 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Heat Transfer Engineering

Frictional and heat transfer characteristics of single-phase microchannel liquid flows

The traditional modeling framework for determining streaming potential, when taking into consideration finite size effects, suffers from an oversight in that while the model incorporates the size effects in the ion distribution profiles, it neglects these very same effects in the flux contributions, even though diffusivities are intrinsically linked with ionic friction, which again depends on the size of the ions. This oversight may lead to inconsistent quantitative estimates through ad hoc consideration of diffusivity values, apparently independent of the specific size of the ions, which nevertheless determines the ionic profiles. We remedy this theoretical inconsistency by expressing the diffusivity in terms of the ionic radius and investigate the consequences of such a description of the diffusivity-dependent flux, consistent with the ionic distribution profiles, on streaming potential mediated flow predictions. Additionally, we consider the effects of "charge induced thickening" so that both viscosity and diffusivity are expressed as spatially varying functions. As an unintuitive implication, we also show that calculation of nonzero values of streaming potential under the purview of classical Boltzmann distributions, which consider ions to be pointlike charges, is itself a theoretical inconsistency. We believe that the simple framework presented in this paper will pave the way for more sophisticated modeling efforts in the future. © 2012 American Physical Society.

Consistent accounting of steric effects for prediction of streaming potential in narrow confinements

Heat transfer characteristics of thermally developing, pressure-gradient aided electroosmotic flows through narrow fluidic confinements, with step-change in the wall temperature, are critically analyzed by going beyond thin electrical double layer (EDL) approximations that are otherwise routinely invoked in the literature. By employing a semi-analytical formalism, our analysis demonstrates that thick EDL considerations, consistent with the possibilities of having the characteristic EDL thickness comparable to the channel hydraulic radius, may alter the thermal transport characteristics to a significant extent, as compared to the corresponding characteristics obtained under thin EDL limits. The unique features of the resulting heat transfer characteristics stem mainly from the non-trivial effects of viscous dissipation under such physical conditions, and from its intrinsic difference with the Joule heating effects, as emphasized upon. In addition to the volumetric heat generation sources, the effects of the relative strengths of the flow actuation mechanisms and thermal Peclet number on the thermal entrance length, liquid temperature profile and the local Nusselt number are discussed through a detailed parametric study. The thermally fully developed state is analyzed here as a limiting condition of the developing flow regime. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Extended Graetz problem for combined electroosmotic and pressure-driven flows in narrow confinements with thick electric double layers

We demonstrate the occurrence of electrokinetic phenomenon in paper substrates, by developing a simple "paper-and-pencil" device. The underlying electrokinetic phenomenon results in enhanced liquid transport through the paper-fibre matrix, which exhibits significant active electrical controllability and improved repeatability. These bear far-ranging consequences towards opening up a new paradigm of fluidics over small scales.

Lab on a chip

Electrokinetics with "paper-and-pencil" devices.

In the present paper, closed form solutions for the Nusselt number are obtained for hydrodynamically and thermally fully developed combined electroosmotic and pressure-driven flows in narrow confinements for the constant wall heat flux boundary condition. Overcoming the constraints of the standard models that are valid only within thin electrical double layer (EDL) limits, the effects of thick electric double layers are accounted for as a distinctive feature of this model. Along with Joule heating, viscous dissipation effects, which are particularly important for ultrathin channel dimensions (typically conforming to the cases of thick EDLs), are taken into account. The results are presented in terms of appropriate nondimensional parameters depicting the relative EDL thickness with respect to the channel height, as well as relative strengths of Joule heating and viscous dissipation effects.

Journal of Heat Transfer

Analytical solution for thermally fully developed combined electroosmotic and pressure-driven flows in narrow confinements with thick electrical double layers