MECHANICAL ENGINEERING—ENGINEERING MECHANICS
Proudly Presents:
Dr. Amitabh Narain
Professor
Michigan Technological University
Prof. Amitabh Narain (Ph. D., University of Minnesota, 1983) is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Michigan Technological University, USA; a Fellow of the ASME; an Associate Editor of the Journal of Heat Transfer; and Director of the Energy-Thermo-Fluids area in his department.
His current research areas deal with state-of-the-art computational and experimental techniques for singlephase and phase-change (flow boiling and flow condensation) flows, particularly those related to energy
technologies such as thermal management and power generation applications. Dr. Narain’s research has
received continuous funding from NSF or NASA since the year 2000. He is a PI or Co-PI on external
grants totaling approximately $ 3 million (with $1.85 million as PI). Dr. Narain has authored over 73 peerreviewed articles. His recent research accomplishments have been highlighted through several keynote and
invited lectures – including on national websites, such as by NSF in 2012 and by Research.Gov in 2013. He is very active in teaching and mentoring students (graduate and undergraduate) - as well as in national-level professional service. Dr. Narain has served
on several government panels and on ASME committees: HTD-K8 (current Vice-Chair and Chair-designate), HTD-K13, FEDMulti Phase Flow Committee, and AMD-Fluid Mechanics committee (Past Chair and Vice-Chair). Over the past twenty years, he
has also been an active lead organizer for several symposia, topics, or sessions for ASME and other international conferences.
Thursday,February25,2016
4:00 pm — 103 EERC
High Heat-Flux Milli-meter Scale Flow-Boilers and Flow
Condensers—Experimental and Modeling Results
This presentation summarizes experimental and modeling results in the context of applications of shear driven (including
zero/micro-gravity flows) annular regime operations of milli-meter scale innovative flow-boilers and condensers. Besides
describing the innovative operations, the presentation summarizes more recent computational and experimental results
obtained for annular/stratified internal boiling and condensing flows. The reported results come from experiments as well
as from a new fundamental scientific computational tool. The computations yield accurate numerical solutions of the full
two-dimensional steady and unsteady governing equations.
The results highlight: (i) experimental ways for realizing high amplitude wavy annular thin film flows, (ii) differences in
flow physics for shear driven (horizontal channels) and gravity driven (inclined channels) flows, (iii) non-linear stability
analyses based identification of annular to plug-slug transition boundary, (iv) summary of the correlations developed to
predict heat-transfer rates and the length of the annular regime, and (v) discussions of contact line flow-physics and
acoustics enabled standing wave formations that are needed for very high heat-flux operations.
The talk also relates the science to technologies that can address cooling needs for devices operating at high heat-load and
high heat-flux (≥1 kW/cm2) values – such as in supercomputer and data center cooling.
Supported by NSF CBET-1033591 and 1402702