Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) is collaborating with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to establish a Centre of Excellence for research in ‘Fluid and Thermal Sciences’. The ISRO would be providing a seed funding of ₹1.84 crore towards establishing this centre.

This centre will act as a nodal centre for spacecraft and launch vehicle-related thermal management research activities of ISRO. Thermal problems regarding design, analysis and testing of various components could be performed by leveraging the expertise of IIT Madras faculty.

The projects under the MoU will cover critical areas, including spacecraft thermal management, combustion instability in hybrid rockets, and cryo-tank thermodynamics. The Centre will enhance collaboration between ISRO scientists and IIT Madras faculty, fostering innovation in fluid and thermal sciences.

Arvind Pattamatta, Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Madras, in the release said, this Centre of Excellence will foster an industry-academia interface, allowing ISRO scientists and IIT Madras faculty and students to collaboratively advance research in critical areas of thermal science.