The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras has collaborated with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to establish a center of excellence specializing in research in ‘fluid and thermal sciences’. ISRO would provide seed funding of Rs 1.84 crore for setting up this centre.

This center will act as a nodal center for ISRO’s research activities in thermal management related to spacecraft and launch vehicles. Thermal issues regarding design, analysis and testing of various components could be resolved by leveraging the expertise of IIT Madras faculty.

A Memorandum of Understanding for this collaboration was signed at IIT Madras on November 11, 2024 by Prof. Manu Santhanam, Dean (Industrial Consulting and Sponsored Research), IIT Madras and Victor Joseph T, Director, Directorate of Technology Development and Innovation (DTDI), ISRO, in the presence of the project coordinator, Prof. Arvind Pattamatta, Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Madras, and other stakeholders from IIT Madras and ISRO.

The main results of this collaboration would include:

1. Thermal Management Research Center: The center will serve as a key research hub for ISRO, focusing on thermal management challenges of spacecraft and launch vehicles.
2. Funding: ISRO will provide initial funding of Rs 1.84 crore to set up the center and for essential infrastructure and equipment, along with additional funding for consumables, maintenance and for future projects in science. the heat of the fluids.
3. Advanced Research Projects: Projects will cover critical areas including thermal management of spacecraft, combustion instability in hybrid rockets, and cryo-tank thermodynamics.
4. Industry-Academia Collaboration: The center will strengthen collaboration between ISRO scientists and IIT Madras faculty, fostering innovation in fluid and thermal sciences.

Elaborating further, Professor Arvind Pattamatta, Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Madras, said, “This center of excellence will foster a unique industry-academia interface, enabling ISRO scientists and faculty and students to IIT Madras to collaboratively advance research in critical areas of thermal science. “By addressing the complex challenges of thermal engineering, we aim to contribute significantly to the national 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 the country to have a truly self-sustaining and self-generated space program, ISRO and IIT Madras established the “Space Technology Cell ISRO-IIT M” in 1985.

IIT Madras has proposed to establish this Center of Excellence for research in ‘Fluid and Thermal Sciences’, which will serve as a nodal center for thermal management research activities related to ISRO spacecraft and launch vehicles . Thermal issues regarding design, analysis and testing of various components could be analyzed by leveraging faculty expertise.

This proposal was evaluated by ISRO and found that the proposed facility can support ISRO’s R&D activities in studies related to thermal management of spacecraft, combustion instability in hybrid rockets and studies on the thermodynamics of cryo-reservoirs, among other areas. Therefore, the proposed facility can be used to expand the research activities of the Department of Space and ISRO in fluid and thermal sciences.