Sunetra Sarkar

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Mobirise



Professor, IIT Madras, India.
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Research Area: Deterministic and stochastic treatment of nonlinear flow and fluid-structure interaction problems

Group Head,
Biomimetics & Dynamics Lab, Department of Aerospace Engineering,
Indian Institute of Technology Madras,  Chennai, India.
Email: sunetra@iitm.ac.in, sunetra.sarkar@gmail.com
Phone: +91-44-22574024

Editorial Advisory Board, International Jl of Non-linear Mechancis, Elsevier 
Associate Editor,  ASME Jl of Computational and Nonlinear Dynamics
Associate Editor, Jl of Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sc & Engineering


Immediate opening- Post-doctoral and PhD positions (contact me with your CV)

Opening for Post-Doctoral Positions: Experimental investigation in the broad area of unsteady flow-fields around flapping bodies (candidates with experimental background with PIV experience preferred)
Opening for PhD Positions: Looking for candidates to work in the areas related to Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) and multi-physics phenomena, Reduced Order Models (ROMs), Machine Learning, Complex Networks, Urban Climate Modelling.

Topics of Current Research:

  • Surroagte modelling of unsteady vortex dominated flows using Machine learning 
  • Complex networks for fluid structure interaction problems
  • Buological and biomimetic swimmers (tethered and self-propelled)
  • Nonlinear dynamics and time-series analysis of large order complex systems
  • Bifurcation and chaos in complex flow problems
  • Energy harvesting from flow-induced vibrations
Mobirise



Our reserch is focussed on analysising the complex flow-physics around fully flexible flapping bodies (associated nonlinear dynamical behaviour and bifurcations). The accompanyig multi-physics phenomena complicates the manifestation of the nonlinear behaviour. The accompanying frame shows a periodically actuated fully flexible swimmer generating backward wakes (jets), enabling backward propulsion. Such mechanisms of propelling exits in many natural larvae and swimmers (mosquitoes). Aperiodic wake patterns are also possible which could be in fact dynamical chaos. Dynamical routes, such as quasi-periodic, period-doubling and intermittency have been reporte by us. The dynamics becomes much more complex with full flexibility and stochastic gust. The coupled fluid-structure interaction dictate the unsteady flow patterns. 

Sunetra Sarkar obtained her PhD from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India in 2005. She did her post-doctoral studies from Technical University of Delft, Netherlands. 

Her research interests lie in the field of dynamics of fluid structure interaction and unsteady flows. Over the years, a variety of problems related to this field have been studied, mainly through computational modelling of varied fidelities, and recently, using experimental techniques as well. One of the main focal points has been development of efficient numerical solvers, as the problems encountered were strongly nonlinear and needed to be characterized in a time accurate manner over large spans of time. These investigations have led to the resolution of the underlying bifurcations of the coupled systems as well as the flow-field vortex patterns. Novel flow-field wake modes and new bifurcation routes to fluid-elastic instabilities were reported which are of considerable interest to the community.   

It was also recognized in her studies that the real life physical and engineering systems represented by the flow and fluid structure interactions problems could encounter sources of uncertainties. The coupled systems were known to manifest dynamical instabilities and presence of input uncertainties could potentially bring dramatic and sudden changes to their bifurcation requiring a careful reassessment of the problem in a stochastic framework. She has worked extensively on a variety of spectral based uncertainty quantification tools and have contributed towards the development of algorithms ideally suited for nonlinear fluid structure interaction problems.    
  • Professor, Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, July 2018- present
  • Associate Professor, Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, July 2012-July 2018  
  • Assistant Professor at Indian Institute of Technology Madras, June 2007-July 2012
  • Rubicon Fellow, Technical University of Delft, Netherlands, April 2006 - May2007
  • Post Doctoral Researcher, Technical University of Delft, Netherlands, Feb’2005 – March 2006

Contact Information:

Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, India.
Phone: +91 44 22574024, Fax: +91 44 2257 4002,
Email: , < sunetra@iitm.ac.in>, <sunetra.sarkar@gmail.com>

Biomimetics & Dynamics Laboratory, CTC Building  (Room 121), Department of Aerospace Engineering, IIT Madras, Chennai 600036, India. Phone: +91 44 2257 5023

Professional Details Research

 Publications

 Biomimetics &
Dynamics Lab