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Ranganathan Kumar

Professor, Associate Dean of Research

Department: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Email: Ranganathan.Kumar@ucf.edu
Phone: 407-823-4389
Office: Engineering I Room 202
Website: Ranganathan Kumar Research
Resume: Download CV

Ranganathan Kumar serves as the associate dean for research and administration for the College of Engineering and Computer Science at UCF. He received his Ph.D. in theoretical and applied mechanics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1983, and his M.S. in aerospace engineering in 1978. He has had previous experiences at Clemson University (1983-1993) and Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory (1993-2003). He joined UCF as chair of the Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering in 2003 and served in that capacity until 2008.

He has supervised/graduated nearly 50 graduate students including 20 Ph.D. students. He has written over 200 technical articles of archival quality. His research has been highly cited and funded by the National Science Foundation, NASA, the Department of Energy, the Air Force Research Laboratory, the State of Florida and industries.

He is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering. He has chaired ASME committees on heat transfer in environmental systems, and long range planning and development. He is a reviewer for several journals, and a panel member for proposal evaluation at the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy and the American Association of Advancement in Science. He currently serves as an associate editor of ASME Journal of Thermal Sciences and Engineering Applications, and also as editorial board member of a nature publication, Scientific Reports.

Research Interests: Laser-based measurements; Droplet and Spray Drying in Acoustic Field; Microfluidics/Nanofluids Heat Transfer; Infra-red thermography

  • Ph.D. Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Theoretical and Applied Mechanics
  • M.S. Georgia Institute of Technology Aerospace Engineering
  • B.S. Madras Institute of Technology Aeronautical Engineering
  • B.S. University of Madras Mathematics
ucf
  • Professor, Associate Dean of Research
editorial
  • Associate Editor, ASME Thermal Science and Engineering Applications
leadership
  • Associate Dean for Research and Administration

  • Haghshenas, J.A. Wilson and R. Kumar, “Phase-change mechanism for evaporation in porous media using Volume of Fluid: Implicit formulation of interfacial temperature,” Int. Comm. Heat and Mass Transfer, 103, pp. 90-99, 2019.

  • Castillo-Orozco, A. Kar, & R. Kumar, “Laser-induced subwavelength structures by microdroplet superlens,” Optics Express, 27, Issue 6, pp. 8130-8142, 2019.

  • Haghshenas, J.A. Wilson and R. Kumar, “Algebraic coupled level set-volume of fluid method for surface tension dominant two-phase flow,” Int. J. Multiphase Flow, 90, pp. 13-28, 2017.

  • Castillo-Orozco, A. Kar, & R. Kumar, “Electrospray mode transition of microdroplets with semiconductor nanoparticle suspension,” Scientific Reports, 7, 5144, 2017.

  • Davanlou and R. Kumar, “Thermally induced collision of droplets in an immiscible outer fluid,” Scientific Reports, 5, Article # 9531, 2015.

  • D. Wehking and R. Kumar, "Droplet actuation in an electrified microfluidic network," Lab Chip, 15(3), pp. 793-801, 2015.

  • A. Castillo, A. Davanlou, P. K. Choudhury and R. Kumar, “Droplet Impact on Deep Liquid Pools: Formation of Rayleigh Jet and Daughter Droplets,” Physical Review E, 92, 053022, 2015.

  • Davanlou and R. Kumar, “Counter-current motion of a droplet levitated on a liquid film undergoing Marangoni convection,” Int. J Heat Mass Transfer, 89, pp. 345-352, 2015.

  • Miglani, S. Basu and R. Kumar, "Suppression of instabilities in burning droplets using preferential acoustic perturbations," Combustion and Flame, 161(12), pp. 3181-3190, 2014.

  • Miglani, S. Basu and R. Kumar, “Insight into Instabilities in burning droplets,” Physics of Fluids, 26, 032101, 2014.

  • Wilson, J, Wehking, J.D. and Kumar, R. 2013. Uniform alumina microspheres from Temperature Induced Forming in a microfluidic T-junction. Appl. Phys. Lett. 103:203115

  • Yakshi-Tafti, E., Cho, H.J. and Kumar, R. 2011. Diffusive Mixing through Velocity Prof:ile Variation in Microchannels. Experiments in Fluids, 50:535-545.

  • Saha, A., Basu, S. and Kumar, R. 2012. Effects of Acoustic Streaming-induced Flow in Evaporating Nanofluid Droplets. J Fluid Mechanics. 692:207-219.

  • Kumar, R and Milanova, D. 2009. Effect of Surface Tension on Nanotube Nanofluids. Applied Physics Letters. 94:073107

  • Kumar, R, Tijerino, E, Saha, A and Basu, S. 2010. Structural morphology of acoustically levitated and heated nanosilica droplet. Applied Physics Letters. 97:123106