prof.dr.ir. S. Vanapalli (Srini)

Srinivas Vanapalli’s academic roots are from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras with a bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering. He later received an electrical engineering master’s degree (cum laude) from the University of Twente. He received his PhD title for 'High frequency operation and miniaturization aspects of cryocoolers' at UT, a major part of this work is carried out at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, USA.

Srini has a mix of industrial and academic experience and has worked so far in three continents. His research interest is cryogenics where disciplines thermodynamics, material sciences, fluid, and heat transfer meet. He received the 2019 Mulholland award for excellence in cryogenic engineering which is given to recognize significant achievement in a particular areas of cryogenics.

Srini leads the Applied Thermal Sciences lab within the Energy Materials and Systems cluster where his team explores fundamentals and applications of thermal sciences in both space and time domains. The core competence of his group is heat and mass transfer phenomena in the cryogenic temperature range from 200 K to 4 K. His approach combines formulation of conceptual models, experiments, and numeric. The topics of his research are problem-driven and his team seek to solve grand societal challenges related to energy and life sciences.

For more info about Srinivas Vanapalli on the 'Featured Scientists' page, click below:

Chemistry

# Cooling
# Cryogenics
# Heat Transfer

Engineering & Materials Science

# Cooling
# Cryogenics

Physics & Astronomy

# Coolers
# Cooling
# Tubes

Faculty of Science and Technology (TNW), Energy, Materials and Systems (EMS)

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Cryocoolers: Joule-Thomson and Stirling type

Hydrogen liquefaction and storage: small scale hydrogen liquefiers and storage

Multiphase flow and heat transfer at low temperatures: imbibition of liquid nitrogen in porous media, cryogenic droplet evaporation physics, freeze concentration.

Stirling thermodynamics: Oscillating flow and heat transfer physics

Sublimation physics: Dry Ice (CO2) Leidenfrost layer dynamics, Schlieren imaging of density gradients around dry ice, dry ice sublimation in storage boxes, CO2 thermodynamic sublimation phase diagram for a binary mixture.

Cryogenics in Applied Lifescience: Cryofixation of biomedical materials, frozen transport, & cryo-handling.

Technology development: Additive manufacturing, Micromachining

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

please see the home page of Applied Thermal Sciences lab

Spijkers, R. M. A. , & Vanapalli, S. (2023). Assessment of the cold storage performance of a device used in deep frozen cold chain. In International Congress of Refrigeration 26 https://doi.org/10.18462/iir.icr.2023.0199

Zhang, Z., Joy, M. , & Vanapalli, S. (2023). Modelling and Experimental Investigation of Solute Inclusion During a Progressive Freeze Concentration Process. In 26th International Congress of Refrigeration https://doi.org/10.18462/iir.icr.2023.0823

Zhang, Z., Kalter, M., Zhao, H. , & Vanapalli, S. (2023). Leidenfrost dynamics of a LN2 droplet inside an immiscible liquid pool. Poster session presented at 15th Workshop on Droplet Impact Phenomena and Spray Investigations, DIPSI 2023, Bergamo, Italy.

van der Wijngaart, H. , Jagga, S., Dekker, H., de Goeij, R., Piersma, S. R., Pham, T. V., Knol, J. C., Zonderhuis, B. M. , Holland, H. J., Jiménez, C. R., Verheul, H. M. W. , Vanapalli, S., & Labots, M. (2023). Advancing wide implementation of precision oncology: A liquid nitrogen-free snap freezer preserves molecular profiles of biological samples. Cancer medicine, 12(9), 10979-10989. https://doi.org/10.1002/cam4.5781

Schremb, M., Kalter, M. , & Vanapalli, S. (2023). Development of a lab-device for evaporation-free supply of pure liquid nitrogen for droplet- and jet-generation. Scientific reports, 13(1), [6421]. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-31955-4

Vanapalli, S., & Joy, M. (2022, Nov 21). Cryogenics in the pharmaceutical industry: drug design and bioavailability improvement. https://iifiir.org/en/encyclopedia-of-refrigeration/cryogenics-in-the-pharmaceutical-industry-drug-design-and-bioavailability-improvement

Zhang, Z. , Spijkers, R. M. A. , Schremb, M. , & Vanapalli, S. (2022). Heat and mass transfer during levitation of a liquid nitrogen Leidenfrost droplet on a water pool. IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 1240, [012157]. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899X/1240/1/012157

Vanapalli, S., Kalter, M., & van Limbeek, M. A. J. (2022). Heat Transfer in an Eccentric Gas Gap Annulus. Paper presented at 22nd International Cryocooler Conference, ICC 2022, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, United States. https://cryocooler.org/resources/Documents/C22/303.pdf#page=1

Anand, A. , Purandare, A. S. , & Vanapalli, S. (2022). Performance improvement of a PCM cold box by two bilayers configuration. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer, 134, [105978]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2022.105978

Purandare, A. , & Vanapalli, S. (2021). Experimental and Numerical Investigation of the Effects of Different Heat Transfer Modes on the Sublimation of Dry Ice in an Insulation Box. In Advances in Heat Transfer and Thermal Engineering: Proceedings of 16th UK Heat Transfer Conference (UKHTC2019) (pp. 465-468). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4765-6_80

See all research output of this employee

What defines me as a teacher?

Experiment with better ways to achieve success
Value the students and respect them.
Inspire students by drawing parallels between the subject matter and students everyday experiences. Also walking through several examples.
Belief in mentoring students and showing them the path to learn themselves.
Provide thought provoking examples (not just a text book).

Bachelor

Master

Applied Physics

Courses in the current academic year are added at the moment they are finalised in the Osiris system. Therefore it is possible that the list is not yet complete for the whole academic year.

My research is supported by national, european funding agencies and industry.

Funding entities: NWO-TTW, EU, TKI-HTSM, TKI-Energy, ZonMW, ESA & Air Liquide

What drives me as a scientist is the exciting wealth of knowledge and surprises I come across in my research, either in the lab or in discussions with my team. We built a little cryogenic fluids playground and often me and my students try things out of curiosity, very often transforming into serious multi-year projects. I believe in sharing this curiosity with the general public and to high-school students, with a hope to ignite the STEM flame in them. My outreach efforts were recognized recently by the MESA+ Dave Blank Outreach Award.

News feature in Physicsworld (IOP publishing)

09 July 2020: Why insulated metals cool down faster than their bare counterparts

https://physicsworld.com/a/why-insulated-metals-cool-down-faster-than-their-bare-counterparts/

30 December 2019: Study of liquid-nitrogen droplets gives new insight into cryogenic spray-cooling

https://physicsworld.com/a/study-of-liquid-nitrogen-droplets-gives-new-insight-into-cryogenic-spray-cooling/

17 December 2019 UToday: Freeze!

https://www.utoday.nl/science/67723/freeze

August and October 2019 COLDFACTS issue (https://cryogenicsociety.org/cold_facts/)

Mulholland memorial award for Srinivas Vanapalli

Biopsy frozen in seconds in the operating room

Dave Blank Outreach Award to Srinivas Vanapalli

+31534894839