International Conference on Mechanical Engineering and Renewable Energy


(December 11-13,2019)

                                                                                                                                                                 

                                                                                                     Prof. Prashanta Dutta

                   Microscale Thermo-Fluid Laboratory

                  School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering

                  Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164-2920


Biodata: Prof. Prashanta Dutta was born and raised in Chittagong, Bangladesh. He received his BS (1994) degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology and his MS (1997) and PhD (2001) degrees from the University of South Carolina and Texas A&M University, respectively. He joined the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering of Washington State University (WSU) in 2001, where he is a tenured Full Professor since 2013. His primary research area is Micro, Nano, and Biofluidics with a specific focus on the development of new algorithms for multiscale and multiphysics problems. He has published more than 165 peer-reviewed journal and conference articles and four book chapters. Prof. Dutta chaired numerous sessions, fora, symposia, and tracks for a number of ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) and APS (American Physical Society) conferences and served as the Chair of ASME Micro/Nano Fluid Dynamics Technical Committee. Moreover, he served as an Associate Editor for the ASME Journal of Fluids Engineering; currently, he is a Deputy Editor for the Electrophoresis. Prof. Dutta is an elected Fellow of ASME, and he is a recipient of Fulbright Professorship sponsored by the US Department of States. His work is supported by the US National Science Foundation, US National Institutes of Health, US Department of Education, Washington Technology Center, MITRE, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Washington state Joint Center for Aerospace Innovation, and Washington State Life Sciences Discovery Fund.


Topic: Mechanical Characterization of Biovesicles- A connection between Biology, Engineering and Medicine. 


Keynote-II:

Prof. Dr. Muhammad Mustafizur Rahman

Bloomfield Chair Professor and Dean’s Fellow – New Strategic Initiatives

Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering

Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas 67260, USA 

Topic: Solar Thermal Power with Energy Storage – A Pathway to Combat Global Warming

Abstract:

Global warming is now a reality. Earth Surface’s temperature is increasing, sea ice is retreating, the temperature of the sea is increasing, massive wildfires are occurring more frequently along with the other changes of the global climate. Emissions of Greenhouse Gasses (GHGs) from fossil fuel combustion have contributed significantly to the climate change. Therefore reduction of fossil fuel and the use of renewable energy with zero-emission is essential in electric power generation. Unlike fossil fuels, renewable energy is clean and does not release carbon pollution into the atmosphere (which drives climate change). Renewable energy can be categorized into various energy sources such as hydropower, biomass, geothermal, wind, and solar energy. Among these, solar energy is considered as the best choice of the sustainable energy source with the advantages of being freely available, low cost, and environment-friendly. Concentrated solar power (CSP) is showing good promise with great quantities of incoming radiation from the sun and can be used with high conversion efficiency and low cost if integrated with energy storage to cover cloudy days as well as nights.

Thermal energy storage systems can be designed using either sensible or latent heat capacity of materials. The major advantage of latent heat storage (LHS) over sensible heat storage (SHS) is higher specific energy storage capacity, which leads to a smaller storage tank and therefore lower capital cost. The latent thermal energy storage system stores energy in the form of latent heat of fusion. The phase change material (PCM) absorbs and releases heat by changing the phase. However, except for metallic-based PCMs, all other PCMs have a disadvantage of low thermal conductivity, which reduces the heat transfer rate between the PCM and the heat transfer fluid (HTF). Enhancing thermal conductivity of PCM is ongoing research in the field of the latent heat thermal energy storage.