The enormous challenges thrown out by rapid development in science and technology have made

me choose engineering as a profession. I take this opportunity to describe my educational

background and career objectives that motivated me to pursue a career in the Chemical industry.
My undergraduate education exposed me to the different specialties of Chemical Engineering
and stimulated interest in me towards advanced research in Chemical Engineering.

During my undergraduate years, I acquired a strong background in the fundamentals of core

Chemical Engineering courses, viz., Transport Phenomena, Chemical Engineering
Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics, Heat and Mass Transfer. Because of my profound interest in
Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer, I associated myself with Dr. Subrahmaniyam Susarla and
worked for a period of two and half years on the research projects titled ‘Freezing Rates of
Phase Change Materials in Vertical Cylinders’ and ‘Settling of Spherical and Non-Spherical
Particles in Newtonian and Non-Newtonian Fluids’. Along with Dr. Susarla, I co-authored a
book titled ‘Introduction to Thermal Energy Storage with PCM’.

As part of my under graduation course work, I equipped myself with ASPEN Plus and worked
on ‘Simulation Studies on Distillation Column using ASPEN PLUS’ as my final year project
and was awarded the best grade (A) for the simulation work.

As a young and enthusiastic seeker of new things, I took good interest in learning the concepts of
Mass Transfer Operations during my undergraduate years and dealt with a variety of separation
techniques. The application of mass transfer operations in chemical industries intrigued me and I
happened to discuss this with my professors and fellow students. This provided me the impetus
to learn the concepts of Non-Newtonian fluids and their handling, extraction and processing.
Furthermore, during my experiments on settling of particles, I made use of Non-Newtonian
fluids which employ mass transfer operations for their separation. I strongly feel determined to
delve deeper into Non-Newtonian fluids research in processing industries. This provides me the
motivation to pursue my graduate studies in Chemical Engineering.

After completion of my under graduation, I continued to work on ‘Settling of Spherical and

Non-Spherical Particles in Newtonian and Non-Newtonian Fluids’. During this time, I worked
extensively on Non-Newtonian fluids. As a result of which, I got the opportunity to present a
paper during the 2009 AIChE Annual Meeting at Nashville, TN. With this research background
in Non-Newtonian fluids, I would like to extend my horizon of knowledge during my graduation.

Since graduate study is an important step towards a professional career, I cannot risk
compromising on the quality of education. When it comes to quality education, your university is
one of the few places I can think of. I also view your university as an ideal place where I could
get a chance to work on real time projects.

I am confident that I have the preparation and potential to prove an asset to your graduate
program. I thank you for your consideration and look forward to an intellectually inspiring and
fruitful association with your university.
Research Projects:

Project 1: Freezing Rates of Phase Change Materials in Vertical Cylinders

The main aim of the project is to study the phase change behavior in circular, square and
elliptical vertical cylinders. A relation is developed between frozen mass and time for the phase
change materials of n-octadecane and Paraffin wax. Frozen layer thickness varies according to
the cylinder material and surrounding bath temperature. The data on elliptical cylinders was
published in ‘Journal of the Institution of Engineers (India)’. The correlated data of Copper
and Steel vertical cylinders was accepted in ‘11th UK National Conference on Heat Transfer’.

Project 2: Settling of Spherical and Non-Spherical particles in Newtonian and Non-

Newtonian Fluids
The main aim of the project is to study the settling behavior of spherical and non-spherical
particles in Newtonian and Non-Newtonian fluids. Reynolds number and drag co-efficient were
calculated based on the particle equivalent diameter and terminal velocity. Results indicated that
particles of equal sphericity of different shapes show a similar trend on the plot of Drag co-
efficient v/s Reynolds number. The results of spherical particles were compared with the
correlation of S N Shah et al and cones were compared with Chhabra et al. The data of terminal
velocity and Drag curve of non-spherical particles was accepted in ‘2009 AIChE Annual
Meeting’.

Book: Introduction to Thermal Energy Storage with PCM: (pending publication)

Subrahmaniyam Susarla, Ramana Susarla and Jeevan Garmilla

While writing the book, I collected the literature of the past 40 years consisting of more than 370
papers on Thermal Energy. The book consists of general introduction to Thermal Energy with
fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer, Mathematical aspects of freezing and
melting on plane, cylindrical and spherical surfaces, phase change process in packed beds and
fins and recent literature on the subject.

List of Publications:

• Dr S Subrahmaniyam, Y V Raviteja and G Jeevan ‘Freezing Rates of Phase

Change Materials in Elliptical Cylinders’, Journal of the Institution of Engineers
(INDIA), Vol: 89, March 2009, PP: 3-5.

• Subrahmaniyam Susarla and G Jeevan: ‘Freezing Rates of Phase Change

Materials in Vertical Cylinders’ is accepted for 11th UK National Conference on Heat
Transfer, London, 6th – 8th September 2009.

• Subrahmaniyam Susarla, Jeevan Garmilla, Raghu Kattekola, Santhosh Kumar

Gujje and Swaminath Nomula ‘Terminal Velocity and Drag Curve of Non-Spherical
particles in Liquids’, is accepted for 2009 AIChE Annual Meeting, 217g, 10th Nov, 09,
Nashville, TN.