CAMP Professor Subramanian Has Book Published

CAMP Professor R. Shankar Subramanian, of Clarkson University's Department of Chemical Engineering, is the co-author of the monograph The Motion of Bubbles and Drops in Reduced Gravity (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2001). The book is principally about the motion of bubbles and drops caused by variations in interfacial tension arising from temperature gradients on their surfaces. It is divided into four sections. Part one introduces the reader to the role of gravity and interfacial tension in the motion of bubbles and drops. Part two is devoted to the motion of isolated bubbles or drops. Part three discusses the interaction of bubbles and drops with each other and with neighboring boundaries. The final section deals with mass transport to bubbles and drops in reduced gravity conditions and to the motion that occurs in a body of fluid due to interfacial tension gradients on a free surface.

Professor Subramanian, who has spent over twenty years of his career conducting research on the subject discussed in the above book, led an international team that carried out experiments in 1994 and 1996 on the motion of bubbles and drops in reduced gravity aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia. In addition to this work, he is very much involved in the modeling of chemical-mechanical planarization. He is interested in predicting overall removal rates from blanket wafers, and phenomena such as dishing and erosion in patterned wafers. He is also exploring the mechanical and wetting properties of polishing pads.