Chanakya University School of Biosciences

Chitransh Atre

Ph.D., IIT Madras

Chitransh Atre

Ph.D., IIT Madras
Chitransh.a@chanakyauniversity.edu.in
Fluid Mechanics, Heat and Mass Transfer, CFD

My research journey began with a simple yet powerful idea Everything Flows. This thought led me to the world of fluid dynamics, a field that explains motion across an incredible range of scales from tiny droplets of water to the vast, expanding universe. I was fascinated by how fluid motion shapes the natural world e.g. ocean currents that transport heat across the planet, invisible airflows that allow aircraft to fly, and large-scale atmospheric motions that lead to the formation of cyclones. Although these phenomena appear vastly different, they are governed by common physical laws.

As my understanding deepened, my interests gradually shifted toward interfacial flows, where the contact region between fluids and solids plays a dominant role in governing motion. Simple observations in nature revealed the importance of these effects, such as a small insect standing effortlessly on the surface of water without sinking. This curiosity led me to explore capillary flows, which arise from molecular forces between solids and liquids rather than external pressure or gravity. Nature employs these principles with remarkable efficiency, most notably in the transport of water from plant roots to leaves without the aid of any mechanical pump.
My current research focuses on the dynamics of capillary rise in sharp-cornered geometries, where fluid motion becomes extremely sensitive to surface shape and wettability. Capillary action forms the core working principle of heat pipes, which are widely used for thermal management in high-performance electronic devices. These systems play a vital role not only in everyday technologies such as laptops and mobile phones, but also in advanced aerospace applications, including missiles and satellite launch vehicles.

In my work, I proposed a theoretical model to describe liquid flow in corner menisci. The model’s predictions were validated through laboratory experiments and further confirmed using numerical simulations in OpenFOAM. These simulations were carried out using modified models and supported by high-performance computing. In addition, I have also worked on physics-informed neural networks, integrating machine learning techniques with fundamental physical laws.

Through my research, I aim to understand how simple physical principles found in nature can be harnessed to address complex engineering challenge.

Chitransh Atre has been serving as an Assistant Professor at Chanakya University since February 2026. His academic interests include fluid mechanics, heat and mass transfer, interfacial flows, and computational fluid dynamics. He is about to complete his PhD in Applied Mechanics at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, where his research focused on capillary-driven flows and interfacial phenomena with applications in thermal management systems.

He also worked for three years as a Project Officer in the Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research (IC&SR) division at IIT Madras, contributing to a national IMPRINT project that involved industry-oriented research and advanced simulations. His research findings have been published in international peer-reviewed journals, and he has presented his work at several international conferences.

Prior to his doctoral studies, he earned a master’s degree in Atmospheric Sciences from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. During this period, he was awarded the DAAD scholarship and carried out a research project at Leibniz University Hannover, Germany, on the impact of solar ultraviolet radiation on vitamin-D production in the human body. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the National Institute of Technology Bhopal. Recently, he was also involved in an industry-funded project on image-based detection of paint defects supported by Saint-Gobain.

  • Ph.D., (Applied Mechanics), Indian Institute of Technology Madras.
  • M.Tech., (Atmospheric Sciences), Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur.
  • B.Tech., (Mechanical Engineering), National Institute of Technology Bhopal.

International Journals and Conference Proceedings

  1. Chitransh Atre, Puthenveettil A P, Arul Prakash, Dynamics of Liquid Rise in the Interstices of Circular Capillaries under Non-Inertial Regime, Soft Matter, 2025; 21:7318-7332.
  2. Chitransh Atre, B. A. Puthenveettil, K A Prakash, Inertial Period Corner Rise in the Interstice of Circular Tubes, Journal of Fluid Mechanics (under submission)
  3. Tripathi, N.K., Shevkar, P.P., Atre, C., Puthenveettil, B.A, Design to Avoid Dry Out in a Flat Heat Pipe Based on Cu Foam, Fluid Mechanics and Fluid Power, Volume 1, Springer, 2024.
  4. C. Atre, A. Manoj and B. A. Puthenveettil, Bulk rise in the interstices of capillaries, 17th Asian Congress of Fluid Mechanics (ACFM 2023), Beijing, China, 2023, pp. 244-248
  5. Atre, C., Manoj, A., Puthenveettil, B.A, Capillary Rise in the Interstices of Tubes, Fluid Mechanics and Fluid Power, Volume 5, Springer, 2024.

Other Conferences

  1. Deepu M., Atre, C., et al. “Evaporation in Corner Thin Films under Infrared Radiation.” International Symposium on Multiphase and Complex Flows (ISMC 2026), BITS Pilani, Goa Campus, India
  2. Deepu M., Atre, C., Ananya, et al. “Evaporation from Corner Menisci in Micro-Capillaries under Infrared Radiation.” Proceedings of CompFlu 2025, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, India.
  3. Thankam Regi, Atre, C., et al. “Strategies for Reducing Pinhole Defects in Paint Coatings on Glass Substrates.” Proceedings of CompFlu 2025, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, India.
  4. Atre, C., Prakash, A. K., Baburaj, A. P. “Inertial Period Corner Rise in the Interstice of Circular Tubes.” APS Division of Fluid Dynamics (DFD) Meeting 2024, Utah, USA.
  5. Atre, C., Baburaj, A. P., Prakash, A. K. “Dynamics of Capillary Meniscus Rise inside a Sharp Three-Cornered Micro-Channel.” Proceedings of CompFlu 2024, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, India.
  6. Nitish T., Prafulla, Atre, C., Baburaj, A. P. “A Design Procedure for Sintered Copper Flat Heat Pipes.” International Conference on Frontiers in Thermal and Energy Systems (ICFTES 2022), National Institute of Technology Calicut, India.
  7. Atre, C., Prakash, A. K., Baburaj, A. P. “Numerical Study of Corner Meniscus Rise in the Interstice of Circular Capillaries.” International Conference on Heat and Mass Transfer (ICHMT 2024), Turkey.

Books/Chapters

  1. Futuristic Trends in Mechanical Engineering Vol. 3 Book 4 (E-ISBN: 978935747-908-1) for IIP series.

  • DAAD International Fellow
  • Attended vocational training at B.H.E.L., Bhopal.
  • Corporate Internship at RMS, Noida. (now MOODY’S)
  • Selected for Summer Internship at IIT Mandi, India.
  • Member of Institute of Scholars (INSc).
  • Member of Rotaract Club.
  • Certifications for OpenFOAM, Ansys (Fluent), MATLAB.
  • A1 level German Language certification.
  • Global Initiative of Academic Networks (GIAN) certifications.
  • MHRD Fellowship: Awarded throughout M.Tech. and Ph.D. studies.
  • All India Rank 11,133, among the top 2 percentile in IIT–JEE 2012.
  • 99.14 percentile in AIEEE 2012.
  • State Rank 157 in MPPET 2012.

  • Outside academics, he enjoys badminton, chess, music creation, and sketching.

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