(10h) Dynamics of Deformable Objects in Flowing Fluids: Polymers, Metamaterials, and Beyond

My current research is focused on understanding the behavior of origami
metamaterials in flowing fluids. Such metamaterials are two dimensional sheets
with predefined creases that can be folded using fold patterns prevalent in
traditional origami. Specifically, I have chosen a periodic herringbone crease
pattern known as Miura pattern in the origami community as my model system. This
is a particularly simple design that still shows a very rich set of behaviors.
When subjected to shear flow, the Miura unit cell alternately deforms and
tumbles and in contrast to simple closed Jeffrey orbits, it shows a wide variety
of trajectories, including limit cycles and quasiperiodic orbits.

During my doctoral research with Kevin Dorfman and Satish Kumar at the
University of Minnesota I investigated the role of hydrodynamic interaction in
adsorption and desorption of polymer chains under shear flow. I showed that in
case of weak adsorption longer chains desorb faster than shorter chains due to
wall-induced migration, but for strongly adsorbed chains the opposite trend
holds. This provided a physical explanation behind several long unresolved
experimental observations in the literature of the molecular weight dependence
on desorption.

In future I want to focus my research on problems involving the interaction of
flowing fluids and elastic or piecewise elastic structures. These include, e.g.
articulated bodies actuated in microscale flows and flows driven by aggregates
of shape-morphing bodies. They key aspect of these kinds of problems is the
coupling between flow-induced changes in geometry and material properties that
in turn affect the flowfield. This constitutes a very rich but yet unexplored
area and I believe my research will significantly aid in expanding the
frontiers of fluid mechanics.

Teaching Interests:

I am willing to teach any of the core undergraduate level courses in chemical engineering. At the graduate level, I would prefer to teach fluid mechanics/transport courses. I would also like develop a new course on scientific computing techniques for engineers, aimed at advanced undergraduate or first year graduate students. The purpose of this course will not be to teach a programming language or numerical methods, rather it will focus on the design and implementation of scientific software, thereby training students to think beyond the conventional procedural paradigm and help them in developing flexible and reusable software.