Akash Choudhary
Name: Akash Choudhary
ID: CH15D206
Email id: a.choudhary1729@gmail.com
Current Address: Room # 635-Bhadra, IIT Madras
Educational Background:
B.Tech. in Chemical Engineering, VIT University, Vellore – Class of 2015
Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, IIT Madras, Chennai
CV: (1/10/2020)Research Interests:
1. Particle focusing in non-linear flows: Cross-stream migration of particles suspended in fluid flows occurs due to inherent non-linearity: inertia or polymeric stresses.
This physics, in the past, has been utilized in microfluidics to focus cells in biological fluids. Recent experimental studies, towards the manipulation of focusing via external fields, have drawn my attention to ask: how electrokinetics affects the particle migration in non-linear flows? Use of classical mathematical techniques (such as perturbation theory and asymptotics in conjunction with Lorentz reciprocal theorem) has helped me gain fundamental insights into the migration of charged particles and reveal the primary source behind the breaking of symmetry in weakly inertial and viscoelastic flows.
2. Swimmers in complex environments: Synthetic swimmers such as Janus particles and rods can propel themselves by generating concentration gradients along their surface. This results in a 'diffusio-osmotic' slip which consequently propels the particle autonomously. A significant portion of the potential applications lies in drug-delivery and biological fluid systems which exhibit non-Newtonian behavior. This led me to study the changes in the slip and swimming of Janus particles in complex fluids (link). I am currently developing a semi-analytical framework to model the hydrodynamic interaction of such swimmers with confinements.
Along with Prathmesh, I am currently examining artificial chemotaxis in linear concentration gradients.
3. Process intensification in microreactors: Microchannels are known to offer small length scale for rapid heat and mass transport. Despite of this, several reaction processes are limited by slow diffusion, which causes formation of undesired products and safety hazards. I am interested in intensification methods and modeling of such systems through CFD simulations. For instance, a gently curved channel produces vortices which generates cross-section mixing and enhancement in heat and mass transport.
4. Instabilities and pattern formation: Hydrodynamic and shape instabilities in nature have always fascinated me. I hope to have opportunity to study beautiful pattern formation in growth and decay of reacting species or biological fluids in the near future.
Publications:
6. Akash Choudhary, T.Renganathan and S. Pushpavanam, Comment on "Migration of an electrophoretic particle in weakly inertial or viscoelastic shear flow" ; Under Review in PHYSICAL REVIEW FLUIDS.
5. Akash Choudhary, T.Renganathan and S. Pushpavanam, Non-Newtonian effects on the slip and mobility of a self-propelling active particle ; JOURNAL OF FLUID MECHANICS 899 arxiv.org/abs/1909.11745.
4. Akash Choudhary, Di Li, T. Renganathan, Xiangchun Xuan, S. Pushpavanam, Electrokinetically Enhanced Cross-stream Particle Migration in Viscoelastic Flows; JOURNAL OF FLUID MECHANICS 898, arxiv.org/abs/1907.03701. Codes can be accessed from my Github profile.
3. A. Choudhary, T.Renganathan, S. Pushpavanam, Inertial migration of an electrophoretic rigid sphere in a two-dimensional Poiseuille flow, JOURNAL OF FLUID MECHANICS, 12 June 2019 ;DOI: 10.1017/jfm.2019.479
2. A. Choudhary, S. Pushpavanam, Process intensification by exploiting Dean vortices in catalytic membrane microreactors, CHEMICAL ENGINEERING SCIENCE, 8 September 2017, Sep 2017;DOI: 10.1016/j.ces.2017.09.005
1. Chenghao Sun, Zhuohui Luo, Akash Choudhary, Peter Pfeifer and Roland Dittmeyer, Influence of the Condensable Hydrocarbons on an Integrated Fischer−Tropsch Synthesis and Hydrocracking Process: Simulation and Experimental Validation, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 18 July 2017;DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.7b01326
Selected Conference Presentations:
6. A. Choudhary and S. Pushpavanam, Non-Newtonian effects on the slip and mobility of a self-propelling active particle, to be presented at American Physics Society(APS-DFD 2019) scheduled from 23rd to 26th November, 2019 at Seattle,USA.
5. A. Choudhary, Di Li, T. Renganathan, Xiangchun Xuan, S. Pushpavanam, Electrokinetics Enhances Cross-stream Particle Migration in Viscoelastic Flows, to be presented at American Physics Society(APS-DFD 2019) scheduled from 23rd to 26th November, 2019 at Seattle,USA.
4. A. Choudhary, T. Renganathan, S. Pushpavanam, Lateral Migration of an Electrophoretic Particle in a Viscoelastic Poiseuille Flow, to be presented at AIChE-2019 annual meeting scheduled from 10th to 15th November, 2019 at Orlando,USA.
3. A. Choudhary, T. Renganathan, S. Pushpavanam, Inertial migration of an electrophoretic rigid sphere in an electroosmotic-Poiseuille flow, presented at American Physics Society(APS-DFD 2018) held on 18th to 20th November, 2018 at Atlanta,USA.
2. A. Choudhary, S. Pushpavanam, Modeling the Influence of Dean Vortices in Improving the Performance of Catalytic Membrane Microreactors, presented at AIChE-2017 annual meeting held on Oct 29 - Nov 3, 2017 at Minneapolis,USA.
1. A. Choudhary, T. Renganathan, S. Pushpavanam, Inertial focusing in Mircroreactors, presented at Complex Fluids Conferenece (CompFlu-2017) held on 17-20 Dec, 2017 at IIT Madras,India.
Awards:
4. Best poster award for presenting Non-Newtonian effects on the slip and mobility of a self-propelling active particle at the 13th International Conference on Complex Fluids and Soft Matter, Bhopal in December 2019.
3. Best presentation award for presenting Lateral migration of an electrophoretic rigid sphere:Newtonian vs viscoelastic flows at the Chemplus symposium held at IIT Madras in March 2019.
2. Best presentation award for presenting Inertial migration in microreactors at the chemical engineering symposium held at IIT Madras in March 2018.
1. Best poster award at the chemical engineering symposium held at IIT Madras in March 2017.
Workshops/Internships:
3. Visiting scholar at IMVT, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany, from 15 May 2017-15 August 2017.
2. Undergraduate intern at NEI-NBC (National Engineering Industries-National Bearing Corporation, Jaipur).
1. Undergraduate intern at KSTPS(Kota Super Thermal Power Station).
Academic Experience:
3. A Graduate level course on Mathematical methods in Chemical Engineering (2017, 2018 & 2019). The faculty in-charge was Prof. S. Pushpavanam.
2. Steady State and Dynamic Analysis (2018 & 2019). The faculty in-charge was Prof. S. Pushpavanam.
1. A Graduate level course on Process Simulation Lab (2016). The faculty in-charge was Prof. Niket Kaisare.
About Me:
I would describe myself as a curiosity driven researcher, currently learning and exploring the field of Low Reynolds number flows, active particles and Electrokinetics. On the other note, I am a regular gym-goer and like to read and practice Stoicism.
Watching movies is one of my favorite pastimes; Whiplash and The Fountain being my favorite. I also blog whenever the time is free: akash.code.blog.
Feel free to write to me if you find my research interesting.