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Acknowledgement

The Australian Society of Rheology would like to acknowledge the traditional owner of the land on which we work. We would like to pay respect to elders past, present and emerging and any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people here today.

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Prabhakar Ranganathan

 

Member profile details

Membership level
Full Membership
First name
Prabhakar
Last name
Ranganathan
Organization
Monash University
Phone
61411788235
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Rheology contributions/achievements
Prabhakar Ranganathan leads research on Multiscale Computational Rheology in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Monash University. His group is currently focused on understanding and predicting the flow of complex polymer solutions and particle suspensions, with an eye on applications in energy storage, energy efficiency and advanced manufacturing.

The core question is: how do microscopic structures and interactions in these materials - polymer chains, particle networks, soft aggregates - give rise to the strongly nonlinear, history-dependent behaviour that engineers measure and use? To answer this, his group combines constitutive modelling, numerical simulation and data-driven methods to build predictive links between microstructure, flow history and measurable rheology across shear, extensional and mixed flows.

A major theme is "full-stack rheology": developing the theory, computation and AI tools needed to go from molecular or particulate models, through continuum constitutive equations, all the way to process-level predictions such as filament breakup dynamics, coating quality or drop-size distributions in spraying. Current projects involve polymer solutions and particle-polymer slurries relevant to battery electrodes, functional coatings and other thixo-elasto-visco-plastic materials, where reliable rheology can enable more energy-efficient and robust processes.

On the methods side, the group works on multiscale simulations, inverse problems and physics-informed machine learning for constitutive model discovery, as well as strategies for autonomous or semi-autonomous rheology labs that couple experiment design, high-performance computing and AI. Earlier work in the group has examined flagellar propulsion, ciliary flows and other active-matter systems, and this continues to inform the broader perspective on how local driving and interactions produce emergent macroscopic transport.

Prabhakar welcomes PhD students with strong interests in fluid mechanics, soft matter, applied mathematics, scientific computing or AI, and is keen to collaborate with experimentalists and industry partners working with complex fluids in energy and manufacturing applications.

Prabhakar has been a long-standing Member of the ASR, and has contributed as a Council Member, Secretary, Treasurer, and President.

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