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Kirti Chandra Sahu

Professor, Chemical Engineering

Ph.D, JNCASR, Bengaluru


Email:   ksahu[at]che.iith.ac.in

Office:  A-508         Lab:  A-322

Tel:  040-2301-6201

Areas of Interest:  Raindrops, Bubble dynamics, Stratified flow


"Our research provides a much-needed understanding of raindrop shape and size distributions at various altitudes, enabling accurate weather forecasting and climate modelling."

Our research primarily focuses on studying the dynamics of raindrops and viscosity-stratified flows. We developed a unique experimental facility that mimics the dynamic atmospheric conditions of raindrops descending from cloud to ground. Our other study addresses mixing, a key feature in most modern industrial processes.

Research Areas

1. Raindrops: Accurate rainfall prediction is one of the grand challenges in environmental research due to its relevance in understanding climate change and its accompanying socio-economic impacts, but it is far from perfect. Our research provides important information on the three-dimensional shape, velocity, and size distributions of raindrops for weather forecasting and enables more accurate rainfall prediction.

2. Bubble dynamics: Despite being a classic subject that has intrigued scientists for centuries, we were the first to produce a regime map demarcating different bubble rise behaviours, including the previously unknown break-up bubbles.

3. Stratified flow: We illustrated how viscosity variation in space and time could profoundly and unexpectedly alter fluid flows. Our study contributed to the comprehension of core-annular pipe flows relevant to the oil and gas industries.

Selected Publications

1.S. S. Ade, L. D. Chandrala and K. C. Sahu, Size distribution of a drop undergoing breakup at moderate Weber numbers, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 959, A38 (2023).

2.P. K. Kirar, S. K. Soni, P. S. Kolhe and K. C. Sahu, An experimental investigation of droplet morphology in swirl flow, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 938, A6 (2022).

3.K. C. Sahu, A new linearly unstable mode in the core-annular flow of two immiscible fluids, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 918, A11 (2021).

4.R. Govindarajan and K. C. Sahu, Instabilities in viscosity-stratified flow, Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics, 46, 331-353 (2014).

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