Welcome to a lecture from visiting professor Amit Rawal from IIT Delhi.

Lecture title: Engineering a Family of Disordered Fiber Networks via a Unified Theory Approach

Disordered fiber networks (DFNs) are ubiquitous materials present in the form of paper, nonwovens, bulk assemblies of one-dimensional (1D) carbon nanomaterials, electrospun mats to interconnected networks of filamentous proteins. This talk will focus on a unified theory approach to predict the geometrical, mechanical, electrical and wetting characteristics of DFNs. Specifically, the unified theory approach has been successfully applied to the nonwoven materials and assemblies of carbon nanotubes in the form of buckypaper. The unified theory has been developed by combining the first principles of stochastic and stereological approaches. Further, the research challenges involved in formulation of unified theory will also be discussed.

About the speaker

Amit Rawal has obtained his PhD in technical textiles from The University of Bolton, UK. He also received Master of Philosophy from The University of Manchester, UK. He is a recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship for experienced researchers for carrying out research work in the area of nonwovens in Germany. Recently, he was awarded Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship to initiate collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. In addition, he has received numerous awards, including Young Researcher Fellowship from prestigious M.I.T, Cambridge, for exemplary research in Computational Mechanics, Fellowship of the Textile Institute, CSIR special research award, and Outstanding Young Faculty Fellowship by Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IITD).

Currently, he is working as Professor at the Department of Textile and Fibre Engineering, IIT Delhi. He has published more than 100 publications in various journals and conferences in the field of nonwoven and braided materials. He has developed various three-dimensional (3D) analytical models for predicting geometrical, mechanical, and wetting properties of various nonwoven and allied structures. His research interests are not only limited to structure, mechanics, and wetting behavior of textile and allied materials but also focused on the structure-property relationship of buckypapers, electrospun mats, low surface energy superhydrophobic fibrous mats, geotextiles, composites, auxetic, piezoresistive, and piezoelectric materials.