Shahriar Afkhami
Professor
Department of Mathematical Sciences
Department of Data Science
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Phone: 973-596-5719
E-mail: shahriar.afkhami@njit.edu
My research lies at the interface of applied mathematics, chemical engineering, and mechanical engineering.
I am interested in computational fluid dynamics, high-performance computing, and algorithm development for
modeling flows of complex fluids.
The main focus of my research is based on developing accurate and robust numerical methods for describing
moving boundaries involving multiple phases and complex flows. Most often, these flows involve multiscale
phenomena and so require the development of special computational algorithms capable of coupling
the solution of the continuum equations to microscopic models. We use a variety of numerical techniques
combined with high performance computing to enhance the capacity of simulations for modeling real life problems.
Postdoc Position: a short-term postdoc position is available to conduct a
numerical study of two-phase viscoelastic flows - if interested, please contact me.
PhD Project:
See here for graduate degree programs information.
My PhD Thesis:
Applying Dynamic Contact Angles to A Three-Dimensional VOF Model
(download)
Research Support:
1. American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund, PRF-59641-ND, “The Study of Hele-Shaw Viscoelastic Two-Phase Flows”, 01/01/2019-2021.
1. NJIT Faculty Seed Grant, “Development of a Numerical Method for Surface Active Agents (Surfactants) at Fluid
Interfaces”, 10/01/2017-2018.
3. National Science Foundation, CBET-1604351,“Collaborative Research: Computations, Modeling and Experiments of Self and
Directed
Assembly for Nanoscale Liquid Metal Systems”, 07/01/2016-2019.
4. National Science Foundation, DMS-1320037,“A new computational method for viscoelastic two-phase flows”, 9/1/2013-2016.
5. Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE); DMS150022, “Numerical investigation of magnetophoretic
interaction of
ferrofluid droplets in a rotating magnetic field”, 25,000 SU hrs, 2016-2017.
6. Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE); DMS150022, “Computational investigation of viscoelastic
flows”, 100,000 SU hrs, 2015-2016.
7. National Computational Science Alliance,
“Parallel Simulations of Drop Breakup in a MicroFluidic T-Junction”,
Principal Investigator: S. Afkhami, 150,000 SU hrs, 2011-2012. grant TG-DMS110019.
8. National Computational Science Alliance, “Computational investigation of viscoelastic liquid-liquid breakup”,
30,000 SU hours, 2007-2008. TG-DMS080012.
Postdocs:
Funded by the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund:
The Study of Hele-Shaw Viscoelastic Two-Phase Flows, 2019-2020.
Students: Kyle Mahady (co-advisor: Lou Kondic), (Winner of the NJIT CSLA
outstanding graduate student award, 2014). Postdoc, University of Tennessee.
Link
to the PhD Thesis (METHODS FOR THE DIRECT SIMULATION OF NANOSCALE
FILM BREAKUP AND CONTACT ANGLES) Ivana Seric (co-advisor: Lou
Kondic), (Winner of the NJIT CSLA outstanding graduate student award and Ahluwalia Doctoral Fellowship,
2015). Data Scientist: Analytics and Strategy - Philadelphia 76ers. Link to the
PhD Thesis (DIRECT COMPUTATIONS OF MARANGONI DRIVEN FLOWS
USING A VOLUME OF FLUID METHOD) Valeria Barra (Winner of the Ahluwalia Doctoral Fellowship, 2017).
Postdoc, University of Colorado, Boulder.
Link to the
PhD Thesis (NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS OF THIN VISCOELASTIC FILMS)
Alexandre Guion, MIT-Nuclear Engineering, (co-advisor). Senior Research
Engineer at ExxonMobil. Link to the PhD Thesis
(Modeling and Simulation of Liquid Microlayer Formation and Evaporation in Nucleate Boiling using
Computational Fluid Dynamics)
Mingfeng Qiu, UBC-Mathematics, (co-advisor)
Jerome Camugli, ESTACA, UPMC-Polytechnique France (internship advisor, summer 2017, co-advisor: Stephane Zaleski)
Yousser Saade, Institut Jean le Rond d'Alembert, Sorbonne, (internship advisor, summer 2018, co-advisor: Stephane Zaleski). PhD student University of Twente
Adam O'Brien, University of Toronto, visiting PhD student, fall 2018 (co-advisor: Markus Bussmann)
Adil Thankayathil, Indian Institute of Science, Bose Scholar, summer 2019
Timothy Barnes (Supported by the Provost's Summer Undergraduate Research Program - 2013)
Josef Mohrenweiser (Supported by the Provost's Summer Undergraduate Research Program - 2014)
Nitya Shah (Supported by the Provost's Summer Undergraduate Research Program - 2018)
Joshua Colditz (NSF Undergraduate Research Program - EXTREEMS-QED - 2018)
Daniel Newton (NSF Undergraduate Research Program - EXTREEMS-QED - 2018)
Jacob Dresher (Summer Research - 2018)
Peter Lehrer (Summer Research - 2018)
John DeSalvo (NSF Undergraduate Research Program - EXTREEMS-QED - 2019)
Philip Zaleski (Supported by the Provost's Summer Undergraduate Research Program - 2019, Winner of the Goldwater Scholarship, 2020)
Zhaoshu Cao (Supported by the Provost's Summer Undergraduate Research Program - 2022) High School Students: Steven Barroqueiro, Science Park High School (Harvard);
Patrick LeBlanc, High Technology High School (Notre Dame);
Iris Rukshin, High Technology High School (Princeton);
Farris Ahmed, South Brunswick High School (Drexel);
Alex Janiak, Governor Livingston High School;
Swathi Parthibha, Middlesex County Academy (Cornell);
Eshaan Mangat, High Tech High School (Brown);
Rachel Heeren, Union County Magnet High School;
Alayo Oloko, Kent Place High School;
M. Lee, A. Shelke, S. Singh, J. Fan;
A. O'Brien, S. Afkhami, and M. Bussmann, "Pore-scale direct numerical simulation of Haines jumps in a porous media model", under revision: The European Physical Journal ST, 2020.
Numerical simulation of the displacement patterns when varying the wetting characteristic of the porous media, from figure 5 in the following article:
A. O'Brien, S. Afkhami, and M. Bussmann, "Pore-scale direct numerical simulation of Haines jumps in a porous media model", under revision: The European Physical Journal ST, 2020.
K. Verhulst, R. Cardinaels, P. Moldenaers, Y. Renardy, and S. Afkhami, "Influence of viscoelasticity on drop
deformation and orientation in shear flow. Part 1: Stationary state", Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics, vol. 156, pp. 29-43, 2009.
K. Verhulst, R. Cardinaels, P. Moldenaers, S. Afkhami, and Y. Renardy, "Influence of viscoelasticity on drop deformation and orientation in shear flow. Part 2: Dynamics", Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics, vol. 156, pp. 44-57, 2009.
R. Cardinaels, S. Afkhami, P. Moldenaers, and Y. Renardy, "An experimental and numerical investigation of the dynamics of microconfined droplets in systems with one viscoelastic phase", Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics, vol. 166, pp. 52-62, 2011.
V. Barra, S. Afkhami, and L. Kondic "Interfacial dynamics of thin viscoelastic films and drops", Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics, vol. 237, pp. 26-38, 2016.
The following video shows the formation of satellite droplets after the breakup of a viscoelastic film.
V. Barra, S. Chester and S. Afkhami, "Numerical simulations of nearly incompressible viscoelastic membranes", Computers
& Fluids, vol. 175, pp. 36-47, 2018.
S. Afkhami, Y. Renardy, and M. Renardy, "Numerical methods for the flows of two immiscible viscoelastic liquids".
S. Afkhami, Y. Renardy, M. Renardy, J. S. Riffle, and T. St. Pierre, "Field-induced motion of ferrofluid droplets through immiscible viscous media", Journal of Fluid Mechanics, vol. 610, pp. 363-380, 2008.
S. Afkhami, A. Tyler, Y. Renardy, M. Renardy, T. St. Pierre, R. Woodward, and J. S. Riffle, "Deformation of a hydrophobic ferrofluid droplet suspended in a viscous medium under uniform magnetic fields", Journal of Fluid Mechanics, vol. 663, pp. 358-384, 2010.
I. Seric, S. Afkhami, and L. Kondic, "Numerical simulations of a ferrofluid drop on a substrate under an applied magnetic field", 66th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics, 2013.
I. Seric , S. Afkhami, and L. Kondic, "Interfacial instability of thin ferrofluid films under a magnetic field", Journal of Fluid Mechanics Rapids, vol. 755(9), doi: 10.1017/jfm.2014.435, 2014.
S. Afkhami, L. J. Cummings, and I. Griffiths, "Interfacial deformation and jetting of a magnetic fluid", Computer & Fluids, vol. 124, pp. 149-156, 2016.
Numerical simulation of the planetary motion of two ferrofluid drops in a rotation magnetic field, figure 6 in the following article:
M. Qiu, S. Afkhami, C.-Y. Chen, and J. Feng, "Magnetophoretic interaction of a pair of ferrofluid droplets in a rotating magnetic field", Journal of Fluid Mechanics, vol. 846, pp. 121-142, 2018.
S. Afkhami and M. Bussmann, "Height functions for applying contact angles to 2D VOF simulations", International Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluids, vol. 57, pp. 453-472, 2008.
S. Afkhami and M. Bussmann, "Height functions for applying contact angles to 3D VOF simulations", International Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluids, vol. 61, pp. 827-847, 2009.
S. Afkhami, S. Zaleski, and M. Bussmann, "A mesh-dependent model for applying dynamic contact angles to VOF simulations", Journal of Computational Physics, vol. 228, pp. 5370-5389, 2009.
R. Cardinaels, S. Afkhami, P. Moldenaers, and Y. Renardy, "An experimental and numerical investigation of the dynamics of microconfined droplets in systems with one viscoelastic phase", Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics, vol. 166, pp. 52-62, 2011.
S. Afkhami, A. M. Leshansky, and Y. Renardy, "Numerical investigation of elongated drops in a microfluidic T-junction", Physics of Fluids, vol. 23: 022001, 2011.
P. Yue, S. Lee, S. Afkhami, and Y. Renardy, "On the motion of superparamagnetic particles in magnetic drug targeting", Acta Mechanica, vol. 223, pp. 505-527, 2012.
K. Mahady, S. Afkhami, J. Diez, and L. Kondic, "Comparison of Navier-Stokes simulations with long-wave theory: study of
wetting and dewetting", Physics of Fluids, vol. 25(11): 112103, 2013.
K. Mahady, S. Afkhami, and L. Kondic, "A volume of fluid method for simulating fluid/fluid interfaces in contact with solid boundaries", Journal of Computational Physics, vol. 294, pp. 243-257, 2015.
K. Mahady, S. Afkhami, and L. Kondic,
"On the influence of initial geometry on the evolution of liquid filaments", Physics of Fluids, vol. 27(9), 092104, 2015.
K. Mahady, S. Afkhami, and L. Kondic,
"A numerical approach for the direct computation of flows including fluid-solid interaction: modeling contact angle,
film rupture, and dewetting", Physics of Fluids, vol. 28(6), 062002, 2016.
A simulation of the breakup of a finite-size liquid filament on a substrate - see the following article for more information:
A. Dziedzic, M. Nakrani, B. Ezra, M. Syed, S. Popinet, and S. Afkhami, "Breakup of finite-size liquid filaments: Transition from no-breakup to breakup including substrate effects", The European Physical Journal E, vol. 42:18, 2019.
A. Guion, S. Afkhami, S. Zaleski, and J. Buongiorno, "Simulations of microlayer formation in nucleate boiling",
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, vol. 127, pp. 1271-1284, 2018.
S. Afkhami, A. M. Leshansky, and Y. Renardy, "Numerical investigation of elongated drops in a microfluidic T-junction", Physics of Fluids, vol. 23: 022001, 2011.
A. M. Leshansky, S. Afkhami, M.-C. Jullien, and P. Tabeling, "Obstructed breakup of slender drops in a microfluidic T junction", Physical Review Letters, vol. 108: 264502, 2012.
S. Afkhami and Y. Renardy, "A volume-of-fluid formulation for the study of co-flowing fluids governed by the Hele-Shaw equations", Physics of Fluids, vol. 25: 082001, 2013.
M. Hein, S. Afkhami, R. Seemann, and L. Kondic, "Capillary focusing close to topographic step: Shape and instability of confined liquid filaments", Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, vol. 18, Issue 5-6, pp. 911-917, 2014.
M. Hein, R. Seemann, and S. Afkhami, "On the capillary self-focusing in a microfluidic system", to appear: Fluid Dynamics Research, 2016.
S. Afkhami and L. Kondic, "Numerical Simulation of Ejected Molten Metal Nanoparticles Liquified by Laser Irradiation: Interplay of Geometry and Dewetting",
Physical Review Letters, vol. 111: 034501, 2013.
N. A. Roberts, J. D. Fowlkes, K. Mahady, S. Afkhami, L. Kondic, and P. D. Rack,
"Directed assembly of one- and two-dimensional nanoparticle arrays from pulsed laser induced dewetting of square waveforms", ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, vol. 5: 4450-4456, 2013.
J. D. Fowlkes, N. A. Roberts, Y. Wu, J. A. Diez, A. G. Gonzalez, C. Hartnett,
K. Mahady, S. Afkhami, L. Kondic, and P. D. Rack,
"Hierarchical nanoparticle ensembles synthesized by liquid phase directed self-assembly", Nano Letters, vol. 14(2): 774-782, 2014.
S. Afkhami and L. Kondic, "On the dewetting of liquefied metal nanostructures", Journal of Engineering Mathematics, vol. 94(1), pp. 5-18, 2015.
K. Mahady, S. Afkhami, and L. Kondic,
"On the influence of initial geometry on the evolution of liquid filaments", Physics of Fluids, vol. 27(9), 092104, 2015.
The following video shows the nanoscale drop assembly via square-wave breakup.
C. A. Hartnett, K. Mahady, J. D. Fowlkes, S. Afkhami, L. Kondic, and P. D. Rack,
"Instability of nano and microscale liquid metal filaments: Transition from single droplet collapse to multi-droplet breakup", Langmuir, vol. 31(50), pp. 13609-13617, 2015.
