Lalit Kumar

Lalit Kumar

lalit.kumar[at]iitb.ac.in

Academic Background:

  • PhD (chemical engineering) from NTNU Trondheim, Norway [2011-2014]
  • M.Tech (chemical engineering) from IIT Kanpur, India [2002-2004]
  • B.Tech (chemical engineering) from IIT Kanpur, India [1998-2002]

Contact Address:

#712, 7th floor, Department of Energy Science and Engineering Opposite Kendriya Vidyalaya School, IIT Bombay Powai, Mumbai, Maharashtra-400076

(0091 22) - 2576-7886


Research Interest:

  • Bulk and interfecial rheology
  • Complex multi-phase flow
  • Wax deposition, pipeline shut-in and restart processes
  • Thermal management of living space, battery, exhaust aftertreatment etc
  • Water Purification/ Oil-water separation
  • Population balance modeling

Courses Offered:

  • EN 410 Energy Management
  • EN 649 Introduction to Particulate Flow
  • EN 309 Thermal & Fluid Engineering Lab
  • EN 420 Energy Laboratory II
  • EN 315 Reaction Engineering & Combustion
  • EN 651 Multiphase Petroleum Transportation
  • EN 418 Introduction to Transport Phenomena

List of Publications:

  1. Lalit Kumar, "An algebraic thixotropic elasto-visco-plastic constitutive equation describing pre-yielding solid and post-yielding liquid behaviours." Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics, 321, 105105, (2023).
  2. Sanyal, Aniruddha, Sachin Balasaheb Shinde, and Lalit Kumar. "Synergetic Effect of Wall-Slip and Compressibility During Startup Flow of Complex Fluids." arXiv preprint arXiv:2301.03898 (2023).
  3. Shrinet, Ekta Singh, Ankit Mukherjee, and Lalit Kumar. "A novel thermal management system design based on variable contact area to maintain uniform temperature in Li-ion battery module." Journal of Energy Storage 72 (2023): 108332.
  4. Shinde, Sachin Balasaheb, Lomesh Tikariha, and Lalit Kumar. "Experimental and numerical investigation of the degelation behavior and non-isothermal flow restart of a waxy oil pipeline." ACS omega (2023).
  5. Kothawale, Sheetal S., Lalit Kumar, and Swatantra P. Singh. "Role of organisms and their enzymes in the biodegradation of microplastics and nanoplastics: A review." Environmental Research (2023): 116281.
  6. Mukherjee, Ankit, Ankush Shankar Pujari, Shraddha Nitin Shinde, Uddip Kashyap, Lalit Kumar, Chandramouli Subramaniam, and Sandip K. Saha. "Performance assessment of open thermochemical energy storage system for seasonal space heating in highly humid environment." Renewable Energy 201 (2022): 204-223.
  7. Shrinet S Ekta and Kumar Lalit" A thermal management method for obtaining uniform temperature of a battery module" Indian Patent Application No 202221052800
  8. Tikariha, Lomesh, Aniruddha Sanyal, and Lalit Kumar. "Numerical study of gelation and flow restart in a waxy crude oil riser." Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 217 (2022): 110871.
  9. Farah Ansari, Sachin Balasaheb Shinde, Kristofer G. Paso, Johan Sjöblom, and Lalit Kumar*, "Chemical Additives as Flow Improvers for Waxy Crude Oil and Model Oil: A Critical Review Analyzing Structure−Efficacy Relationships", " Energy & Fuels 36, no. 7 (2022): 3372-3393.
  10. Kiran, Abhimanyu, Chandra Shekhar, Manigandan Sabapathy, Manoranjan Mishra, Lalit Kumar, Navin Kumar, and Vishwajeet Mehandia. "Effect of serum starvation on rheology of cell monolayers." Physics of Fluids 33, no. 7 (2021): 071908.
  11. Shinde, Sachin; kumar, lalit "New Method for Gelation Temperature Measurement without Disturbing the Crystal Network." Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research 2021, 60, 23, 8565–8578.
  12. Tikariha, Lomesh, and Lalit Kumar. "Pressure Propagation and Flow Restart in a Pipeline filled with a Gas Pocket Separated rheomalaxis Elasto-viscoplastic Waxy Gel." Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics (2021): 104582.
  13. Shinde, Sachin; kumar, lalit, "A method for determining gelation temperature of a material exhibiting thermal shrinkage during cooling", Indian patent application No 202121022815
  14. Mukherjee, Ankit, Lalit Kumar, Chandramouli Subramaniam, and Sandip Kumar Saha. "Performance evaluation of a seasonal residential space heating system based on thermochemical energy storage." Applied Thermal Engineering 194 (2021): 117059.
  15. Tikariha, Lomesh, and Lalit Kumar. "Pressure propagation and flow restart in the multi-plug gelled pipeline." Journal of Fluid Mechanics 911 (2021).
  16. Sanyal, Aniruddha, Lomesh Tikariha, and Lalit Kumar. "The effects of partial preheating on pressure propagation and Flow-Restart phenomena in a clogged pipeline with a weakly compressible gel." Physics of Fluids 33, no. 4 (2021): 043101.
  17. Tikariha, Lomesh and Kumar, Lalit, " A method for restarting flow in waxy crude oil transporting pipeline", Indian Patent Application No 202021017317, US Patent Application No 17/233,722
  18. Mukherjee, Ankit, Rudrodip Majumdar, Sandip K. Saha, Chandramouli Subramaniam, and Lalit Kumar. "Performance Evaluation of an Open Thermochemical Energy Storage System Integrated with Flat Plate Solar Collector." Applied Thermal Engineering (2020): 115218.
  19. Mukherjee, Ankit, Rudrodip Majumdar, Sandip K. Saha, Lalit Kumar, and Chandramouli Subramaniam. "Assessment of open thermochemical energy storage system performance for low temperature heating applications." Applied Thermal Engineering 156 (2019): 453-470.
  20. Kumar, Lalit, Konstantin Pougatch, Martha Salcudean, John Grace, Dana Grecov, and Jennifer McMillan. "Population balance modeling for the growth of agglomerates via primary and secondary agglomeration in gas-fluidized beds." Powder Technology 321 (2017): 499-513.
  21. Kumar, Lalit*, Olaf Skjaersean, Karin Hald, Kristofer Paso and Johan Sjöblom., "Nonlinear rheology and pressure wave propagation in a thixotropic elasto-viscoplastic fluid, in the context of flow restart." Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics, 231. 11-25 (20016).
  22. Kumar, Lalit*, Kristofer Paso and Johan Sjöblom, "Numerical study of flow restart in the pipeline filled with weakly compressible waxy crude oil in non-isothermal condition." Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics, 223. 9-19, (2015).
  23. Kumar, Lalit*, Chris Lawrence, Yansong Zhao, Kristofer Paso, Brian Grimes, and Johan Sjöblom. "Numerical study of pipeline restart of weakly compressible irreversibly thixotropic waxy crude oils." AIChE Journal, 61, 2657 - 2671 (2015).
  24. Kumar, Lalit*, Vishwajeet Mehandia, and S. Narayanan. "Modeling Laminar Pulsatile Flow for Superior Cleaning of Fouling Layers." Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research 54, no. 43 10893-10900 (2015).
  25. Kumar, Lalit*, Lawrence Chris, and Sjöblom Johan, "Mechanism of Pressure Propagation and Weakly Compressible Homogenous and Heterogeneous Thixotropic Gel Breakage to study flow restart." RSC Adv., 4, 27493, (2014).
  26. Zhao, Yansong; Paso, Kristofer Paso; Kumar, Lalit; Safieva, Jamilia; Sariman, Mior Zaiga B.; Sjöblom, Johan. "Controlled Shear Stress and Controlled Shear Rate Nonoscillatory Rheological Methodologies for Gelation Point Determination." Energy & Fuels.; 27 (4) (2013).
  27. Zhao, Yansong; Kumar, Lalit; Paso, Kristofer Gunnar; Ali, Hassan; Safieva Jamilia; Sjöblom, Johan. "Gelation and Breakage Behavior of Model Wax-Oil Systems: Rheological Properties and Model Development." Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research. 51 (23) (2012).
  28. Zhao, Yansong; Kumar, Lalit; Paso, Kristofer Gunnar; Safieva, Jamilia; Sariman, MZB; Sjöblom, Johan. "Gelation Behavior of Model Wax-Oil and Crude Oil Systems and Yield Stress Model Development." Energy & Fuels. 26 (10) (2012).
  29. SS Jayaraman, KS KAMKAR, Kumar, Lalit, A Sah and SR Saurabh “A process and a device for surface cleaning” , Patent # US 8016949/2011 (2011).
  30. Kumar, Lalit and S. Narayanan, “Analysis of pulse flow and its application in particle removal from surfaces”, Chemical Eng. Science, 65, 5582 (2010)
  31. V. Shankar and Kumar, Lalit, “Stability of two-layer Newtonian plane Couette flow past a deformable solid layer”, Physics of Fluids, 16, 4426 (2004)

Work Experience:

  • Associate Professor, IIT Bombay [2021 onwards]
  • Assistant Professor, IIT Bombay [2016 - 2021]
  • Postdoctoral Research Associate, Mechanical Engineering, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada [2014-2016]
  • Principal Research Associate/associate Scientist, Hindustan Unilever Research Center, Bangalore, India [2007-2011]
  • Researcher assistant and project assistant at ETH Zurich, JNCASR and IISc Bangalore [2004-2007]

Current Students:

  • Dr. Rajesh Akula (Postdoctoral Fellow)
  • Dr. Ekta Faujdar (Postdoctoral Fellow )
  • Sachin Shinde (PhD student)
  • Khushboo Singh (PhD student)
  • Mradul Ojha (PhD student, Sup: Prof. Rajneesh Bhardwaj)
  • Ekta Singh Shrinet (PhD student)
  • Sheetal Kothawale (PhD student, Sup: Prof. Swatantra P Singh)
  • Karan Dhuper (PhD student, Sup: Prof. S. Duttagupta)
  • Govind Maurya (PhD student, Sup: Prof. Suneet Singh)
  • Avinesh Kumar (PhD student, Co-sup: Prof. Swatantra P Singh)
  • Satyam Singh Thakur. (PhD student)
  • Teja Sree Addepalli (PhD student, Co-sup: Dr. Neeraj Mathur of oil India)
  • Abhay Pratap Singh (PhD student, Co-sup: Dr. Neeraj Mathur of oil India)
  • Kapil Dev Kumawat (PhD student)
  • Yatharth Gupta (PhD student)