Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) is collaborating with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to establish a Centre of Excellence for research in ‘Fluid and Thermal Sciences’. The ISRO would be providing a seed funding of Rs 1.84 Crore towards establishing this centre.

This Centre will act as a nodal centre for spacecraft and launch vehicle-related thermal management research activities of ISRO. Thermal problems regarding design, analysis and testing of various components could be performed by leveraging the expertise of IIT Madras faculty.

An MoU towards this collaboration was signed at IIT Madras on 11^th November 2024 by Prof. Manu Santhanam, Dean (Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research), IIT Madras and Mr. Victor Joseph T, Director, Directorate of Technology Development & Innovation (DTDI), ISRO, in the presence of Project coordinator Prof. Arvind Pattamatta, Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Madras, and other stakeholders from IIT Madras and ISRO.

The Key Outcomes from this collaboration would include:

• Thermal Management Research Hub: The Centre will serve as a key research hub for ISRO, focusing on spacecraft and launch vehicle thermal management challenges.
• Funding: ISRO will provide an initial seed funding Rs. 1.84 crore to establish the Centre and for essential infrastructure and equipment, and additional funding for consumables, maintenance and for future projects in fluid-thermal sciences.
• Advanced Research Projects: Projects will cover critical areas, including spacecraft thermal management, combustion instability in hybrid rockets, and cryo-tank thermodynamics.
• Industry-Academia Collaboration: The Centre will enhance collaboration between ISRO scientists and IIT Madras faculty, fostering innovation in fluid and thermal sciences.

Elaborating further, Prof. Arvind Pattamatta, Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Madras, said, “This Centre of Excellence will foster a unique industry-academia interface, allowing ISRO scientists and IIT Madras faculty and students to collaboratively advance research in critical areas of thermal science. By addressing complex thermal engineering challenges, we aim to contribute significantly to the nation’s space program and strengthen India’s self-reliance in space technologies”

Having recognized the need to generate basic knowledge through advanced academic research to enable a truly self-reliant and self-generating space programme for the country, ISRO and IIT Madras had set up the ‘ISRO-IIT M Space Technology Cell’ in 1985.

IIT Madras had proposed to establish this Centre of Excellence for research in ‘Fluid and Thermal Sciences’, which will act as a nodal centre for spacecraft and launch vehicle-related thermal management research activities of ISRO. Thermal problems regarding design, analysis and testing of various components could be analysed by leveraging the expertise of faculty.

This proposal was assessed by ISRO and found that the proposed facility can support ISRO’s R&D activities in studies related to spacecraft thermal management, combustion instability in hybrid rockets and cryo-tank thermodynamics studies, among other fields. Hence, the proposed facility can be utilized for expanding the research activities of Department of Space and ISRO in Fluid and Thermal Sciences.

 

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