Curriculum Vitae'Curriculum Vitae' RESEARCH My main research interests lie in premixed turbulent...

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Dr.-Ing. Siva Prasad Reddy MUPPALA

BTech & MTech (Chem Engr), PhD (Combust. Phy), AMIMechE MAIAA

Senior Lecturer in Thermofluids

Department of Engineering and the Environment

Faculty of Science, Engineering & Computing, Kingston University

Friars Avenue, London, SW15 3DW

Tel: +44(0)20-8417 7977 ; Email: s.muppala&kingston.ac.uk

Citizenship: British

Curriculum Vitae'

RESEARCH

My main research interests lie in premixed turbulent combustion,

laminar flames and flame modelling. My work on flame modelling has helped progress in

understanding development of reaction models for premixed turbulent combustion for applications in

design of stationary gas turbines and industrial burners. I am also strongly involved in soot modelling

and high-pressure combustion, for non-unity Lewis number fuels including hydrogen.

Key Research interests: Theoretical and Numerical Investigation of Premixed Turbulent

flames and Laminar flames, Modelling of Soot, Gas Mixture auto-

ignition, Large-eddy simulation; teaching with technology.

Research contributions: I am one of few research active members contributed from Kingston

University for Research Excellence Framework 2014. REF assesses

the quality of research in UK higher education every four years,

based on the journal publication with high impact factor and

contribution to the local community.

Professional Affiliations: Combustion-related:

The International Association for Fire Safety Service (2019)

Combustion Institute (Deutsche sektion)

IMechE (in y2019)

AIAA. (y2019)

Working towards application submission for fellow of FEA.

Education-related:

Life member of The Friends of Oxford Lifelong Learning

Member of The International Society for the Scholarship of

Teaching & Learning (ISSOTL) (2018 – 2019)

Selected Research funding (full details in pages 5&6):

1. Numerical characterization and simulation of the complex physics underpinning the Safe

handling of Liquefied Natural Gas “SafeLNG”. I am director of studies for the ESR project 4:

Rollover model development based on CFD, tracking the flow and phase transition of the

whole tank, boils off from LNG surface, aging properties for the bulk LNG, vapour evolution rate

and compositional change of the LNG, validation with published data for tank operation and

large rollover tests. This EU project is a million € grant from EU Commission.

2. First Grant by Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, obtained for the project

'Numerical Characterization of Effects of Addition of H2, CO, CO2 and H2O in HP Premixed

Turbulent Flames' has been funded. The value of the grant is approximately £123K.

SPR Muppala (Director of Studies). Duration 14 months. Successfully completed. Faculty of

Engineering, Kingston University’s additional financial contribution extended, by another 8 months.

3. "Modelling soot and toxic species formation in compartment fires", EPSRC, CASE Studentship

Awards with Department for Communities and Local Government, S.P.R. Muppala (Principal

Investigator), J.X. Wen, S. Dembele (co-investigator) Duration 36 months. (2006-2008)

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/

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CASE award for PhD ''Ignitability and Flammability of hydrogen doped hydrocarbon/air mixtures'',

supported by Department for Communities and Local government: SPR Muppala (Director of

Studies), J Wen, S Dembele (co-researchers); Value £62,000 + (£13,000 from local govt.),

Duration 36 months. Start June 2007.

4. Confined explosions & DDT, EU Research Grant, J.X. Wen (DoS), SPR. Muppala; Dur. 48

months(year 2006). Explosions and DDT in unconfined hydrogen and vapour cloud flames, EU,

FP6 Marie Curie, BP, Health and Safety.

EDUCATION

Sep 2018 - I am half way through PGCert in Higher Education through Online, UCC, Ireland.

(completed three assignments in Theories of Teaching, Learning and

Assessment).

2018 – 2019 Working towards Fellowship of Higher Education Academy

July 2018 Certificate for Oxford Online Course Design (Online), Oxford University.

Sep 2005 Dr.-Ing. in Combustion Physics, Friedrich-Alexander University,

Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany. Dissertation title: "Modelling of Turbulent Premixed

High-Pressure Combustion with Application towards Gas Turbine Combustors".

Lehrstuhl für Technische Thermodynamik, Universität Erlangen; Berichte zur Energie-

und Verfahrenstechnik (BEV), Heft 5.4, Esytec, Erlangen (2005).

Research funded by Bayerischer Forschungsverbund für Turbulente Verbrennung

(FORTVER).

Jan 1999 1½-year Master of Technology (Chemical Engineering), Indian Institute of

Technology Madras

(Graduate Aptitude Test for Engineers, All India rank 88, year 1997).

Mar 1997 4-year Bachelor of Technology (Chemical Engineering), Sri Venkateswara University

College of Engineering, Tirupati, India (State rank 323 per 45,000 sat candidates,

year 1993).

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Sep 2009 Research Senior Lecturer – School of Mechanical & Automotive Engineering,

Kingston University.

Teaching: Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics, Heat transfer, Energy Systems, CFD

Research: see Key Research Interests in page 1.

Sep 2006/2009 Research Lecturer. Joined in School of Mechanical & Automotive Engineering in the

Faculty of Engineering, Kingston University, in permanent position

2005/2006 Postdoctoral fellow – Turbulent Combustion Modelling,

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium

Research funded by Pole Energie.

1999/2000 Assistant Professor – Department of Chemical Engineering, A. A. M. Engineering

College, Bharathidasan University, Tamilnadu, India.

TEACHING, SUPERVISION & as EXAMINER

Subjects being taught at KU

Undergraduate level: Technology Mathematics, Thermodynamics & Fluid Mechanics, Thermofluid &

Mechanical Systems, Energy Systems, Strength of Materials, Applied Mechanics, Computer aided

Engineering Fundamentals, Manufacturing Tech & Balancing studies; Masters level: Green

Engineering and Energy Efficiency, and Green Engineering in Automotive Technology.

Administration: I have been involved with module development that includes preparation of module

guide and descriptor, study notes, lecture slides, uploading the material for access to the students,

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setting up of coursework, in-class tests, examination papers and marking of the scripts. At the end of

each semester, as a module leader, I present the marks in person to the exam board.

Supervision of Students and Researchers

Undergraduate and Postgraduate students:

• Supervised research assistant (RA) for 22 months in the ESPRC project (see pages 1&8 for details).

• Supervised 15 MSc and MSc-led-by-research projects (see page 6 for details), and more than forty

undergraduate final year projects so far.

Research Students:

• Reza KhodadadiAzadboni. (LNG Vapour Cloud Explosion). Co-supervised with Dr Heidari.

Ongoing.

• B Manickam. PhD (Numerical Modelling of Low Swirl Flames). co-supervised with Prof. F

Dinkelacker.

• N.K. Aluri. PhD (Large Eddy Simulation of Turbulent Combustion). Co-supervised with Prof. F

Dinkelacker.

• R. Badiger; MSc by Research (Full Time) “RANS and LES studies of multicomponent fuel/air

mixtures of premixed turb.combustion using OpenFOAM”. Supervisor: Dr S.P.R.Muppala (DoS)

• V Piradeepan; PhD (Full Time) “Flammability studies of multicomponent fuel/air mixtures”

Supervision Team: Dr S.P.R. Muppala(DoS), Dr S. Dembele, Prof J.X. Wen. Write up unfinished.

DoS: Director of Studies

Doctoral Thesis External Examiner (School of Engineering & Design, Brunel University, UK)

• ’’Diesel engine heat release analysis by using newly defined dimensionless parameters’’ by

G Abbaszadehmosayebi (July 2014).

Doctoral Thesis Internal Examiner (Faculty of Engineering, Kingston University, UK)

• ’’Numerical Simulation and Modelling of Turbulent Flame Deflagration using Coherent Flame

Model’’ by V C Madhav (May 2014).

• ’’Developing Decision Models for Outsourcing in Manufacturing Industries (Small to Medium-

sized Enterprises)’’ by A Adnan, (May 2011).

• ’’Development and Assessment of an Unstructured Discrete Ordinates Method for Radiative

Heat Transfer in Non-Gray Media’’ by LML Kwenda, (Aug 2010).

• ’’Direct Numerical Simulation of Turbulent Flows over Complex Geometries’’ by J Castagna

(Jan 2010).

• ’’Large Eddy Simulation of Under-Ventilated Fires’’ by S Ferraris (March 2007).

Research achievements: Google citations, of my four research articles: cited 104, 102, 41 & 29 times (accessed 27 Dec.18). Development of a numerical model in RANS context One of the significant contributions in my doctoral thesis was development of this below numerical

closure is directly applied to the flame-wrinkling ratio AAT / :

0

T

c u L

Aw s c

A

The flame-wrinkling ratio (also equal to ratio of turbulent to laminar flame speed is modelled with an algebraic flame surface parameterized relation.

0.3 0.2

0.25

( 1)

0 0 0

0.46~ 1 ReT T

tLe

L L

A s u p

A s e s p

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where 0p p is the ratio of the operating pressure to the atmospheric pressure, Le is the Lewis

number. This equation is cited (as shown above) as one of the few among the most widely used models in the combustion community that works for varied conditions. This model was successfully validated in the LES context and couple of journal publications was unaccomplished.

Full list of research publications

Learning and Teaching Higher education research contributions

S.P.R.Muppala, B Chandramohan A Quantitative Approach to Problem-based Learning: a model for measuring student learning outcomes. Conference Thematic Strand: Developing inquiry and research in undergraduate and post-graduate students EuroSoTL 2019 (Oral presentation).

S.P.R.Muppala, B Chandramohan. Teaching adaptations to Student Diversity Individual

speakers (2018), at 2018 annual Festival of Learning held at Kingston University

27/06/2018. (poster presentation).

S.P.R.Muppala, B Chandramohan. Problem-based Learning. Teaching in the spotlight:

Learning from global communities STEM Programme, 5 July, Birmingham. July 2017.

(poster presentation).

JOURNAL PAPERS

Non-combustion related:

A Adnan, M.M. Safa, S.P.R. Muppala, Chaotic Dynamics of Outsourcing Information and

Management [in preparation]

Adnan, A., Safa, M.M., Lung, A.W.M., Muppala, S.P.R. (2014), ‘The Application of Theory of

Constraints in Manufacturing Outsourcing: A Case Study’, International Journal of Enhanced

Research in Science Technology & Engineering, ISSN No. 2319-7463, Vol.2.Issue.3.

Adnan, A., Safa, M.M., Lung, A.W.M., Muppala, S.P.R. (2013), ‘Improvement of outsourcing

by employing Lean Philosophy’, International Journal of Enhanced Research in Science

Technology & Engineering, ISSN No. 2319-7463, Vol.2.Issue.3.pp.1-13, March, 2013.

Hussain, C.M.I., Muppala, S.P.R., Chowdhury, N.H., Adnan, A. Cost Analysis of

Concentrated Solar Power Plant with Thermal Energy Storage System in Bangladesh,

International Journal of Enhanced Research in Science Technology & Engineering, ISSN:

2319-7463, Vol. 2 Issue 4, April-2013, pp: (79-87)

Combustion-related:

S.P.R. Muppala, Vendra M Rao, N.K. Aluri Numerical Implementation and validation of

turbulent premixed combustion model for leaner mixtures, mimicking stationary gas turbine

operating conditions (in review, 2018). International Journal of Turbomachinery, Propulsion

and Power.

S.P.R. Muppala, Vendra M Rao, N.K. Aluri Modelling and Numerical Simulation of dual Fuel

Lean Flames using Local Burning Velocity and critical chemical time scale. Open J. of Fluid

Dynamics (accepted, Oct 2018).

S.P.R. Muppala, B. Manickam, F. Dinkelacker, ''A Comparative Study of Different Reaction

Models for Turbulent Methane/Hydrogen/Air Combustion'' Journal of Thermal Engineering.

Vol. 1, Special Issue 1, pp. 367-380.

M Tidswell, S.P.R. Muppala, A numerical study of turbulent flame speed models for

H2/CH4/Air premixed swirl combustion. Inter. J. of Enhanced Research in Science

Technology & Engineering, ISSN: 2319-7463. Vol. 3 Issue 6, June-2014, pp: (407-422)

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S.P.R. Muppala, B Manickam, F Dinkelacker, Numerical Prediction of CH4/H2/Air Low-Swirl

Flames at Atmospheric Conditions [-Inter. Journal of Spray and Combustion Dynamics].

B Manickam, J Franke, S.P.R. Muppala, F Dinkelacker (2012), Large Eddy Simulation of

Triangular stabilized Lean Premixed Turbulent Flames: Quality and Error Assessment, ‘Flow,

Turbulence and Combustion’, Volume 88, Issue 4, pp 563-596; June 2012)

F Dinkelacker, B. Manickam, S.P.R. Muppala (2011). Modelling and simulation of premixed

turbulent CH4/H2/air flames with an effective Lewis number approach. Combustion and

Flame 158, 1742-1749(2011).

S.P.R. Muppala, M Nakahara, N.K. Aluri, F. Dinkelacker, H. Kido, J.X. Wen, and M.V.

Papalexandris. Experimental and analytical investigation of the turbulent burning velocity of

two-component fuel mixtures of hydrogen, methane and propane. Inter. Journal of Hydrogen

Energy 2009 Vol. 34, Issue 22, pp. 9258-9265.

N.K. Aluri, S.P.R. Muppala, and F. Dinkelacker “Large Eddy Simulation Studies for Different

Configurations Using a Novel Turbulent Premixed Combustion Reaction Closure “. Flow,

Turbulence and Combustion 2008 Vol. 80, No.2, pp. 207-224.

S.P.R. Muppala, S.K.R Sannala, N. K. Aluri, F. Dinkelacker, F, Beyrau, and A, Leipertz

“Detailed 2-D Numerical Simulations of Partially Premixed Laminar Methane Flames for

Temperature and CO Concs”. Combust. Sci. and Tech. 2007 Vol.179 pp. 1797–1822.

N.K.Aluri, S.P.R. Muppala, and F. Dinkelacker “Substantiating a Fractal-based Algebraic

Reaction Closure of Premixed Turbulent Combustion for High-Pressure and the Lewis

Number Effects “. Combust. Flame 2006 Vol.145, No.4, 663-674.

S.P.R. Muppala, N.K.Aluri, F. Dinkelacker, and A. Leipertz “Development of an Algebraic

Reaction rate approach for the Numerical Calculation of Turbulent Premixed Methane,

Ethylene and Propane/air flames at Pressures up to 1.0 MPa”. Combust. Flame 2005 Vol.140

pp.257- 266

N.K.Aluri, P.K.G.Pantangi, S.P.R. Muppala, Dinkelacker F, “A Numerical Study Promoting

Algebraic Models for the Lewis number effect of Atmospheric Turbulent Premixed Bunsen

Flames. Flow, Turbulence and Combustion 2005 Vol.75 149-172.

S.P.R. Muppala, and F. Dinkelacker “Numerical Modelling of the Pressure Dependent

Reaction Source Term for Turbulent Premixed Methane/Air Flames”. Progress in Comp. Fluid

Dyn. 2004 Vol. 6, pp.328- 336.

BOOK CHAPTER (ERCOFTAC Series)

B. Manickam, J. Franke, S.P.R. Muppala and F. Dinkelacker., LES of Triangular-stabilized

Lean Premixed Turbulent Flames with an algebraic reaction closure: Quality and Error

Assessment. Quality and Reliability of LES II., ERCOFTAC Series, 2011, Volume 16, Part 1,

pp221-230.

CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS / PRESENTATIONS

S.P.R. Muppala and Vendra C. Madhav Rao Numerical Implementation and validation of

turbulent premixed combustion model for lean mixtures.. Published online: 02 October 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201820900004/ MATEC Web of Conferences. Vol.

209 (2018) . International Conference on Combustion Physics and Chemistry

(ComPhysChem’18) . Samara, Russian, July 24-28, 2018.

S.P.R. Muppala, M Nakahara, M Vendra, S Dembele ''Experimental Investigations and

Algebraic Combustion Model Predictions of lean hydrogen-enriched hydrocarbon/air Flames

for the Lewis number''. European Combustion Meeting, April 2017, Croatia (6-page

accepted).

S.P.R. Muppala, B. Manickam, F. Dinkelacker, S.Dembele ''Modelling and Simulation of Two-

Component Lean Fuel/Air Flames'', Proceedings of the International Conference on Energy,

Environment, Materials and Safety (ICEEMS’14) December 10-12, 2014, CUSAT, Kochi,

India (accepted for oral presentation)

M Tidswell, Muppala, S.P.R. Validation of combustion models hydrogen/methane/air flames.

http://www.multi-science.co.uk/ijscd.htm

https://www.matec-conferences.org/articles/matecconf/abs/2018/68/matecconf_comphyschem2018_00004/matecconf_comphyschem2018_00004.html

https://www.matec-conferences.org/articles/matecconf/abs/2018/68/matecconf_comphyschem2018_00004/matecconf_comphyschem2018_00004.html

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International Conference on Advances in Engineering, Technology and Management, (paper

ID: NP058) 28-29 March, Natham, India

Muppala, S.P.R. and V.C. Madhav Rao. Numerical Evaluation of Premixed Turbulent

Combustion Models. International Conf. on ‘Recent Advances in Mechanical Engineering’,

INCRAME, India 19–20 April 2012.

C.M.I. Hussain, Muppala, S.P.R. and N.H. Chowdhury. Cost Analysis of Concentrated Solar

Power Plant with Thermal Energy Storage System in Bangladesh. “Gleisdorf SOLAR”

International Conference, organized by AEE – Institute for Sustainable Technologies (AEE

INTEC), Austria. 12-14 September 2012. (accepted for Poster Presentation).

Adnan, A., Gyan, K.S., Safa, M., Cazan, A., Lung, A.W.M., and Muppala, S.P.R. (2012),

Application of Analytical Hierarchy Process for the Selection of Outsourcees (Suppliers) for a

Ghanaian Gold Mining Company, Advances in Computing and Technology 7th Annual

Conference, London, UK.

R. Badiger, S.P.R. Muppala, and V.C. Madhav Rao, Numerical Validation Studies of a

Turbulent Premixed Combustion Model Proceedings of the 22nd National Conference on IC

Engines and Combustion, NIT-Calicut, Kerala, India: 10-13 December, 2011: Paper No: 3-

018

S.P.R. Muppala, B Manickam and F Dinkelacker, Predictability of Turbulent Combustion

Models for Multi-Component Fuel Mixtures in a Low-Swirl Premixed Flame Configuration,

Eighth Asia-Pacific Conference on Combustion, 10-13 December 2010, Hyderabad, India

Campelo H.M., Muppala S.P.R., Wen J.X. and Manickam B Numerical Investigation of

Laminar Burning Velocities for Various Premixed Gaseous Hydrogen/Hydrocarbon/Air

Mixtures V European Conference on Computational Fluid Dynamics, ECCOMAS CFD 2010,

J. C. F. Pereira and A. Sequeira (Eds), Lisbon, Portugal, 14–17 June 2010. Article no.: 01402

Manickam B., Muppala S.P.R., Franke J and Dinkelacker F Numerical Simulation of Rod-

stabilized Flames European Conference on Computational Fluid Dynamics, ECCOMAS CFD

2010, J. C. F. Pereira & A. Sequeira (Eds), Lisbon, Portugal, June 2010. Article no.: 01205

Manickam B., Muppala S.P.R. and Dinkelacker F. Validation of Five Algebraic Reaction

Models for Hydrogen Enriched Low-Swirl Premixed Flames. 12th International Workshop on

Turbulent Premixed Flames, 7-8 August 2010, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

Manickam B., Muppala S.P.R., Franke J., and Dinkelacker F. Evaluation of AFSW model for

bluff body stabilized flames and LES Quality assessment for cold and reacting flows.

European combustion Meeting 2009, Vienna, Austria. 6-page contribution

Manickam B., Franke J., Muppala S.P.R., and Dinkelacker F., LES Quality and error

assessment of lean turbulent premixed flames: Three configurations. Quality and Reliability of

Large-Eddy Simulations II, September 2009, Pisa, Italy (6-page contribution).

Muppala S.P.R. and Aluri N. K. (2008) Numerical simulations on temperature distribution

inside a high-pressure complex three dimensional geometry. Heat and Mass transfer

conference. 19th National & 8th ISHMT-ASME, Hyderabad. Paper no. MIS-11/22B.

Dinkelacker F., Manickam B., Aluri N.K., , Muppala S.P.R., Wen J.X. (2008) Modelling and

simulation of lean premixed turbulent methane/hydrogen/air flames for two flow

configurations. International symposium on Advances in Computational Heat Transfer,

Marakkech, Morocco. Post presentation & thirteen-page paper (2 reviewers). No. CHT-08-

371.

Manickam B., Muppala S.P.R, Dinkelacker F. (2008) Effects of preferential diffusion in

premixed turbulent combustion: Validation of various subclosures for multicomponent fuel/air

mixtures, 3rd premixed combustion workshop, Montreal, Canada.

S.P.R. Muppala “Analytical understanding of the influence of hydrogen addition to lean

premixed turbulent High-Pressure flames using a relatively novel algebraic reaction closure”.

19th Combustion Symposium (Belgian Section) 2006, Mons. Extended Abstract and Oral

Presentation.

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S.P.R. Muppala, M. Papalexandris “A Modelling Approach for Hydrogen-doped Lean

Premixed Turbulent Combustion”. ASME Congress, Chicago 2006.

S.P.R. Muppala, N.K.Aluri, F. Dinkelacker, “A Test of Validation of Turbulent Premixed

Models for High Pressure Bunsen Flames “. Proceedings of European Combusting Meeting

2005, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, (Poster Pres. + Article No. 126 in CDROM)

S.P.R. Muppala, F. Dinkelacker „Untersuchung des Druckeinflusses zur numerischen

Modellierung turbulenter Vormischflammen“. Combustion and Furnaces-21st German

Flammentag 2003, Germany

S.P.R. Muppala, F. Dinkelacker, and A. Leipertz, „Untersuchung des Druckeinflusses zur

numerischen Modellierung turbulenter Vormischflammen. „VDI-Thermodynamik-Kolloquium“

2002, Germany (Oral Pres.)

S.P.R. Muppala, F. Dinkelacker “Numerical Calculation of Turbulent Premixed Methane,

Ethane and Propane/Air Flames at Pressures up to 10 bar “. Proceedings of the ECM 2003,

Orleans, France.

S.P.R. Muppala, F. Dinkelacker “Comparison of the TFC combustion model with premixed

flame experiments. 9th International Conference on Numerical Combustion 2002, Sorrento,

Italy. Paper No.MS04

SUPERVISION OF DOCTORAL & MASTER STUDENTS:

Have supervised three PhD completions and 30 Master final year projects, in the areas but not limited

to: combustion, renewable systems, lean manufacturing, thermal storage, waste water treatment and

hydrogen production.

Details of research contributions:

1. Marie-Curie SafeLNG project: Numerical characterization and simulation of the complex

physics underpinning the Safe handling of Liquefied Natural Gas “SafeLNG”. I am director of

studies for the ESR project 4: Rollover in an LNG storage tank can occur if the liquid at the

bottom becomes lighter than that at the top, and rapidly rises to the surface. Existing rollover

models are based on the zonal-based approach and cannot predict the onset of rollover

accurately or account for multiple sources of LNG. The PhD project will consist in developing

a multi-phase thermophysical approach within the OpenFOAM toolbox to accurately model

rollover using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), tracking the flow and phase transition of

the whole tank, boil off from LNG surface, vapour evolution rate and compositional change of

the LNG. The model will be validated using published data of tank operation and large scale

rollover tests. PhD project commences in November 2014. SPR Muppala (DoS)

2. UKIERI Enhancing the use of performance-based fire safety engineering for conventional and

Sustainable buildings in India and the UK. The main goal of the project is to evaluate,

enhance and promote the use of performance-based fire engineering (PBFE) for the designs

of sustainable and conventional buildings. Contrary to traditional prescriptive building codes,

PBFE promotes diversity, innovation and cost-effective building design solutions. S Dembele

(DoS), SPR Muppala, A Heidari, S Donchev; Value £70,000 (UK-India Education and

Research Initiative), Duration 24 months (submitted for reviewing in May 2014).

3. First Grant EPSRC, "Numerical Characterization of Effects of Addition of H2, CO, CO2 & H2O

in High Pressure Premixed Turbulent Flame", EPSRC, First Grant, EP/H010173/1, SPR

Muppala (DoS) Value £123000, Total duration 22 months (2010).

The first phase of project aimed at (i) large-eddy simulation investigation of premixed turbulent flames

of multi-component fuel/air mixtures, biofuels and syngas (ii) influence of high-pressure on turbulent

burning velocities, and (iii) the molecular transport effects on premixed flame flames.

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Second, it focuses on development of a standard reaction model in order to accommodate the above

three important combustion aspects. For this purpose, the reaction model will be used to compute a

variety of diluents/hydrocarbon/air mixtures based on various measured flame databases.

4. CASE ''Modelling soot and toxic species formation in compartment fires'' EPSRC CASE

studentship award, Department for Communities and Local government: SPR Muppala (DoS), J

Wen, S Dembele; Value £62,000 + (£13,000 from local govt.), Duration 36 months.

This project builds on a recently completed EU project on under-ventilated compartment fires

(FIRENET). It benefits significantly from the development work carried out during the FIRENET

project and in particular our modifications to the NIST CFD code FDS which facilitate the study of fires

in under-ventilated conditions and the backdraft phenomena. However our modified version of the

FDS code, like the original FDS code from NIST, still suffers from over prediction of oxygen depletion

in under-ventilated fires and the temperatures are predicted from the ideal gas state equation rather

than the energy equation. In the new project, we will focus on the improvement to FDS on

temperature prediction and implement a novel procedure for soot and toxic species prediction. A sub-

model for local flame extinction will also be developed. This will further enhance the accuracy of FDS

prediction of under-ventilated fires.

5. HYFIRE, "Explosions and DDT in unconfined hydrogen and vapour cloud flames", EU, FP6 Marie

Curie with BP, Health and Safety Laboratory, J Wen (DoS) and SPR Muppala; Value £630000;

Duration 48 months (2006).

This project will focus on studying the explosions and possible transition to detonation in unconfined

hydrogen and vapour cloud explosions. The effect of vapour cloud sizes, and existence of obstacles

of variable sizes, especially the repeated large scale obstacles will be investigated. Particular

emphasis will be given to model the flame folding. The open source CFD code OPENFOAM will be

used as the basic tool while systematic modifications/additions will be carried out to facilitate the

study.

6. HYFIRE, "Confined explosions and DDT", EU, Research Grant, J Wen (DoS) and SPR Muppala;

Duration 48 months (2006).

For hydrogen-oxygen mixtures, the flame chemistry is now adequately known. The limitations of

models in present CFD explosion codes and the challenges in development of new models are

related to broadening the validity of turbulent burning velocity models. A range of turbulent burning

data exists for methane and propane mixtures, but data are rare for most other fuel mixtures. Very

few turbulent burning velocity data from experiments exists at elevated pressures or in turbulence

fields with high intensity or large length scale. The modeling efforts will attempt to modify the

description of high-speed turbulent deflagrations where compressibility effects dominate. This project

focuses on numerical studies of hydrogen explosions in confined enclosures. Particular emphasis will

be given to the conditions that may lead to deflagration to detonation transition.

Workshops/Trainings:

Appraisal training (half-day)

Research supervision training (full-day)

Research Professional Workshop (half day)

KAPS Guidance (two hours)

March 2010, / organized by KAPS

Venue: KU. Trainer: external

June 2013, / organized by KAPS /


February 2015. / organized by KAPS /


October 2016. / organized by KAPS

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KAPS Evidence Gathering (three hours)

Education for Sustainable Development Workshop

An Introduction to Pedagogic Research

by

DHE: Introductory and Teaching workshops

What works ? Student Retention and Success: final

conference 2017 (phase – 2)

Venue: KU. Trainer: internal

November 2016. / organized by KAPS


March 2017 / organized by KAPS /

Venue : KU, Trainer: external

05 April 2017 (two hours) Organized by Surrey University (Stag Hill

campus)

11 April2017 (whole day).

Organized by Higher Education Academy,

Cavendish Conference Centre, Marylebone,

London

Teaching Interests of

Teaching has been my passion and has evidently become my profession now. Soon after completing

my Masters in Chemical Engineering in premier institute Indian Institute of Technology in India I

worked as a lecturer for 1½ years. Here I taught subjects Chemical Reaction Engineering, Applied

Mathematics and Particle Mechanics for undergraduates and overseen the related laboratories.

Later, I went to Germany in y2000 to conduct a long 5-year research in the field of

Combustion Physics, University of Erlangen, under the project sponsored by Bayern state, home town

of Mercedes Benz. The Abstract of the thesis is available in the CV. For two years one was a teaching

assistant for the MSc module Combustion Technology in taught by my research supervisor

Prof. Dinkelacker in his teaching activities. I had this opportunity for two academic years. My work

involved helping students with solving exercise problems in Combustion. In addition I contributed to

setting the exam papers, with my supervisor.

Immediately after PhD completion, I had one year stint postdoctoral research fellow at

catholique universite de Louvain, Belgium. Soon after, I joined Kingston University London (KU), as

research lecturer in the y2006.

Supervision Experience at Kingston University London

Apart from teaching modules, I have had mentoring opportunities during my teaching career at KU.

So far I supervised over 45 undergraduates. The student works for six months on the final year

project that is equivalent to two modules. Supervision of many students with varied topics was a

learning experience for me.

For Master dissertation, projects are carried out also for dedicated six-months. So far I have

mentored 15 PG students until December 2013. A few of them have published their results in

international journals / conferences. Recently, one of my students Iftekhar Hussain has published

thermal energy storage systems data in an open source journal. Another student Mark Tidswell has

recently finished his Master thesis on Reynolds-averaged numerical simulation of low-swirl flames

using multipurpose commercial software ANSYS Fluent. Mark and I plan to present these numerical

results based on the hydrogen enriched methane/air mixtures in the next European Combustion

Meeting. Such conferences are strongly supported by the Engineering Faculty in Kingston University

with the financial support. This is a mutual benefit for the student, the research advisor and institution.

The student gains an opportunity to improve the skills for technical report writing, leaving the

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university with confidence. For numerical simulations, I help him generate numerical geometry and

with programming to implement modified reaction models using user-defined functions in Fluent. In

addition to this I have also supervised a research assistant for an EPSRC sponsored research

project. I have two PhD completions, along with my research advisor and one MSc-by-research. This

research supervision experience gives as added advantage by blending research-based teaching, to

enhance students’ learning experience.

Courses I'm Interested in Teaching

In a span of 11-year teaching experience and 16-year research expertise (PhD & Postdoc included), I

capable of delivering undergraduate and postgraduate modules Technology Mathematics,

Thermodynamics & Fluid Mechanics, Thermofluids & Mechanical Systems, Energy Systems, Strength

of Materials, Applied Mechanics, Computer aided Engineering Fundamentals, Manufacturing Tech &

Balancing studies. I so far supervised nearly 50 UGs/30 PGs and three PG supervisions this current

year. I can supervise the computing labs involving ANSYS FLUENT / ANSYS CFX. Other modules I

have been engaged with are, but not limited to specialized MSc programmes Green Engineering: with

subjects Energy Efficiency, Green Engineering in Automotive Technology, Design of Solar Heating

systems and Wind Turbines, and Level 4/5/6 modules Advanced Thermodynamics and Fluid

Mechanics. Given the opportunity, I would like to teach a course on the Lean philosophy,

Outsourcing, Air Pollution Control and Management, Waste water treatment, Solid waste

Management, Heat Transfer, Mass Transfer, Chemical Reaction Engineering, Process Control in

Chemical Engineering, Overview of Combustion, Combustion Technology & Combustion Engines.

RESEARCH LETTER

Dr.-Ing. applicant came out with dissertation in Combustion Physics from University of Erlangen,

Germany, in September 2005, with the title ‘Modelling of Turbulent Premixed High-pressure

Combustion with Application to Gas Turbines’.

In this doctoral work, under the supervisions of Prof. Leipertz and Prof. Dinkelacker, the effects of

fuel-type and high-pressures on combustion characteristics in lean premixed turbulent flames were

numerically studied. It resulted in a successful development of a novel algebraic flame surface

wrinkling (AFSW) model. This topic was part of the The Bavarian Research Cooperation Turbulent

Combustion (FORTVER) research project: Simulation of pressure influence and extinction processes

of inhomogeneous premixed turbulent flames. The model has been used quite extensively in the

combustion research community with yielding very good quantitative findings compared to several

well-known models.

For a one-year period (2005-06), Dr. Muppala worked as postdoctoral fellow at Catholic

University of Louvain, Belgium, where he has contributed to advancements in the modelling of

premixed turbulent combustion of multicomponent fuel/air mixtures. His improvements were made to

an existing in-house LES code: by incorporating a turbulence inlet generator, three popular subgrid

turbulence closures and two turbulent premixed combustion models. Simulation studies employing the

modified code were carried out to successfully validate the code. This work was funded by the

European Community through Pôle Energie, Belgium.

He has subsequently joined Kingston University in the year 2006 as a lecturer in combustion

in the Faculty of Engineering. His research expertises are in the areas of laminar combustion,

premixed turbulent flames, ignition, flame-wall interaction and smoke modelling. I have been also

working the area of large eddy simulation.

The applicant’s qualifications and expertise in both teaching and research would enable him

to establish himself as an independent researcher and produce research outputs of the highest

international quality.

He will also be able to attract new industrial funding and collaborations.

In the last ten years at Kingston, I taught Technology Mathematics (I and II), Engineering Science,

Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics (I and II), Strength of Materials, Thermofluids and Energy

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Systems from Foundation year to Level 7(postgraduates). This year I am planning to teach in the

areas of CFD in Mechanical Applications, Renewable Energy and Biomass for Master programmes.

Personal Research Expertise:

At Erlangen, the research goals included development and numerical (RANS and LES) testing of

turbulent premixed flame models. Influence of high operating pressures, variety of hydrocarbons,

range of equivalence ratios and inhomogeneous premixing were investigated. Comparative studies

were made with the experimental results obtained in parallel by other investigators as a part of the

main project. One of the major contributions was the successful development of a novel algebraic

flame surface wrinkling (AFSW) reaction model for premixed turbulent combustion of lean methane/air

mixtures, and later validated to two non-unity Lewis number fuels. The model was enhanced to

include high-pressure effects, and validated up to 30 bar for the simple Bunsen flame measured by

Kobayashi group and for the real time gas turbine flame from ALSTOM(Baden), Switzerland. In

parallel to this study, the investigator worked on the basic structure of two popular reaction rate

models of Bray-Moss-Libby (BML) and of Lindstedt-Váos (LV) which were validated for forty

atmospheric lean methane/air mixtures, for flame characteristics of flame angle and brush thickness.

Using the extensive Kobayashi data, it was also possible to substantiate the LV model for the effects

of both high-pressure and the Lewis number.

The AFSW model was also used for LES of the V-flame, to account for non-homogeneity.

Recently and in continuing collaboration with Prof. Dinkelacker (University of Hannover, Germany)

and his numerical group, the basic RANS modelling and simulation work now takes additional account

of the effect of hydrogen doping to hydrocarbon/air flames. As part of the project, we intend to the

implement the AFSW and extended LV models to the NSF code and to explicitly consider the

modelling aspects of local flame extinction. The investigator’s expertise is in the areas of – laminar

flames [9], premixed turbulent flames, algorithm development and fire and soot modelling. His

contribution to these cutting-edge research topics and strong research collaborative links will place

him in an internationally unique position to undertake research in the future.

Link between my research work and that of hydrogen explosion

Various experimental and DNS data show that premixed combustion is affected by the differences

between the coefficients of molecular transport of fuel, oxidant, and heat not only at weak but also at

moderate and high turbulence. In particular, turbulent flame speed increases with decreasing Le of

the deficient reactant, the effect being very strong for lean hydrogen mixtures.

Hydrogen combustion is characterized by high flame speeds at mixture strengths far below

the lean flammability limits of HC–air mixtures. These features of hydrogen combustion (high flame

speed and low lean flammability limit) make H2 a very promising additive – able to substantially

improve the performance of the lean burning of conventional HC fuels by reducing the lean

flammability limit and increasing the burning rate. The above benefits of H2 call for target-directed

studies of H2 combustion and, in particular, for the development of an advanced reaction model for

simulating lean H2–air or H2–HC–air premixed turbulent flames in future ‘ultra-low’ emission

combustion devices. In succinct, a predictive model cannot be developed without understanding of

molecular transport effects on turbulent flame speed ST. It may be noted that hydrogen explosion is

duly accounted as combustion of premixed gas occurring under intense pressure expansion.

A discussion of these effects requires considering other significant issues of turbulent

combustion such as flamelet instabilities, weakly perturbed flamelets, the extinction of flamelets by

turbulent eddies, and, finally, physical mechanisms that control premixed flame propagation at high

turbulence levels.

Understanding of the global quantity ST may emancipate from intricate combustion physics.

For instance, the dependence of ST on preferential diffusion PD in itself implies an important role

played by thin laminar zones in turbulent flame propagation because relatively weak molecular

diffusivity (compared to turbulent) may affect the process only if the molecular diffusion is enhanced

by the large spatial gradients associated with the zones. The reaction models that allow for the

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important role played by thin laminar zones in highly turbulent flames, e.g. the concept of leading

points are of particular interest, being highlighted in my current work – mentioned in my previous mail.

Model substantiation using this leading point concept may handle even the phenomena embedded

with very weak H2-air mixtures. For example, despite H2 laminar flame speed being as low as 5 times

lower than its complementary rich mixture, ST is exorbitantly high, an atypical phenomenon.

Diagnosis: Extremely strong dominance caused due to preferential diffusion instability of the lightest

fuel.

Modelling Aspects

A turbulent combustion model assumes that the flame in an explosion is a library of flamelets. The

reaction model is usually segmented into two: the reaction subclosure of turbulent flame speed ST,

and the reaction closure with the transport equations(s), reaction rate expression and other related

expansive terms. The combustion model relies on the concept that the flame propagates into the

unburned mixture with a defined velocity (which of course differs with respect to the chosen relative

position, for e.g., along the unburned or burned side of the flame brush). The global quantity ST

increases with decreasing Le and/or increasing preferential diffusion PD. Expectedly, in lean H2

mixtures characterized by substantial differences in thermal diffusivity, and among mass diffusivities

of governing fuel and oxidant, the effects (of Le and/or PD) are very strong even if the turbulence

intensity is exceedingly higher than unstretched laminar flame speed – a perspective of H2 explosion

modelling.

Substantiating the ST model for Ignition and Time-evolution phenomena allow in

understanding and locating the zone of ignition, and the inception phase of flame propagation.

Inclusion of the DL instabilities still furthers in picturing out the flame instabilities, an important

occurrence in H2 modelling following its high diffusive nature. And of course, the success of explosion

simulation depends on the selection of the turbulence models; with LES retaining the edge in handling

wake generated turbulence.

In a developing flame (or explosion), pressure evolution is to be trapped, which therefore

requires that the reaction model be sensitive to pressure effects. My reaction model holds advantage

by invoking the high-pressure effects explicitly. But the model remains to be tested from a

comparative study using some measurable quantities as: maximum pressure, time to build the

maximum pressure, and duration of pressure pulse and so on from the experiments. Ironically, the

reaction models based on the effects due to the Markstein number, flamelet quenching, or small-scale

wrinkling provide no clue to predicting the leading-edge speed, a concept viable to H2 explosion and

consequent pressure build-up evaluation.

The basic physical concepts and terms, and the models that elucidate hydrogen

combustion/explosion serve as a common platform to address the relevant issues in conventional

combustion modelling and in explosion modelling. The effects of molecular transport on ST, mean

flame brush thickness, and structure remain to be addressed in both cases, including the strong

dependence of ST on Le and PD (it is noted that it is hard to interpret their individual contributions). It

is worth-noting that these effects are most pronounced in H2–air mixtures, than in HC mixtures.

My ongoing research activities on ‘H2 and H2–doped HC Combustion Modelling’ are therefore

recognizably residing in close commonity with the ‘Hydrogen Explosion Modelling’, unless otherwise

the latter involves DDT.

Research Collaborators

At Erlangen, Dr. Muppala was actively involved in a DFG (German Research Foundation) sponsored

project. Measurements of combustion characteristics of rich laminar mixtures (for equivalence ratios

1.3 to 4.0) were carried out by a dynamic experimental group using a newly developed CARS

technique. In the numerical study, the narrator has successfully validated those findings using two

popular reaction mechanisms.

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ALSTOM (Baden, Switzerland) has been using the AFSW model for simulation of real-time

flames of stationary gas turbine combustors. Compared to the turbulent flame speed closure by

Zimont, the AFSW model was found to accurately predict the flame anchoring positions and yield very

good quantitative results for diesel/air mixtures and operating pressures up to 32 bar. The investigator

has recently established close research collaboration experimental group of Kido and Paul Scherrer

Institute (Switzerland). Both groups study combustion characteristics in premixed turbulent flames. A

joint research contribution with the Kido group is submitted for review to the International Journal of

Hydrogen Energy. All the strong research links with these institutions will allow me to maintained and

enhance during my period at your institute.

Summer internship (2017):

My proposal on analytical flame calculations has been accepted by the Faculty that allows student

to carry out summer internship. It has sponsored by the Faculty, with £150 per week for 2 to 3

months.

Proposal:

Project Title:

Evaluation and analytical investigation of flame quantities

for laminar flames and Lewis number

of gaseous fuel/air mixtures, for high P&T conditions

Project Outline Focusing on alternative fuels supports future UK energy strategy to achieve

independence from oil supply. Moreover, since politics stress environmental

issues, the use of alternative sources of energy is of paramount importance today.

Therefore, numerical investigation of premixed combustion of multicomponent fuel

mixtures is of practical importance to industry. In this project, the student aims to

work towards three important deliverables.

First, extraction of data from graphical plots from published sources for a flame

quantity unstretched laminar flame speed (SL0) of single hydrocarbon (HC), for a

large set of combination of HC/H2 and H2/air fuel mixtures. This quantity SL0 is an

important input parameter in the modelling of turbulent reacting flows, for stationary

gas turbines, aero & internal combustion engines and industrial combustion

burners. Why this study ?: There has been disagreement in the research

combustion community that use of SL0 from different sources yield significantly

different turbulent flame quantities. Therefore, comparison, analysis and

development of a relatively significant accumulation of such data as a single source

would help the researchers in the exact quantification of combustion model.

Second, extend this above study for the influence as a function of pressure and

temperature.

Third and final: Calculation of the fluid-based property non-dimensional Lewis

number from NIST database. It is another input parameter for turbulent reacting

flows. In a recent study, the idea that the fuel diffusivities can be used with a simple

effective Lewis number model by the supervisor yielded very good predictive way

up to some extent of hydrogen content up to 20 % (by vol). For these mixtures the

explicit influence of high pressure and temperature will be addressed.

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