Biography

Dr. Prabhat K. Agnihotri is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at IIT Ropar. He has worked as Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Micromechanics Department at University of Groningen, The Netherlands before joining IIT Ropar. He received his Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Agar Universiry  in 2001, M.Tech. in Materials Science Programme from IIT Kanpur in 2005,  and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kanpur in 2012.  During his doctoral studies, Dr. Agnihotri has demonstrated that an optimum length of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is required to take full advantage of their superior properties in a multiscale hybrid composite. It is observed through MD simulations that the length of nanotubes affects not only the average properties of composite materials but also the deformation behavior of CNTs under compressive loads and nanotubes undergo a shell-to-column-to-wire transition with an increase in their aspect ratios. Moreover, it has been shown using Kirchoff’s elastica theory that the different chirality of nanotubes imparts them a small but non-zero initial twist density, which plays a significant role in the deformation behavior of very long nanotubes (l/d greater 100). During his postdoctoral work, he has investigated the rate dependent deformation behavior of metals using discrete dislocation plasticity (DDP) framework. A change in deformation controlling mechanism is observed while moving from low strain rate regime (less than 5000 s^{-1}) to high strain rate region (greater than 10000 s^{-1}). The effect of impurities present in real materials, which obstruct the dislocation motion, on it's rate sensitivity is also discussed. Dr. Agnihotri has received Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) Best Student Project Award for the year 2006 for Master’s thesis work.

Professional Achievements

Member of Conferences/Workshops Organizing Team:

• International and INCCOM-6 Conference on ‘Future Trends in Composite Materials and Processing’, 12-14 December 2007, IIT Kanpur, India.

• National Conference of Research Scholars in Mechanical Engineering, 23-24 March 2007, I I T Kanpur, India.

• International Conference on ‘Carbon Nanotechnology: Potential and Challenges’, 15-17 December 2010, IIT Kanpur, India.

• QIP Short Term Course on ‘Theoretical, Computational and Experimental Aspects of Fracture in Materials’, 19-24 March 2010, IIT Kanpur, India.

• QIP Short Term Course on ‘Emerging Trends in Carbon Nanotechnology’, 22-26 Feb 2010, IIT Kanpur, India.

Teaching Interests

Strength of Materials, Theory of Elastictity, Engineering Mechanics, Composite Materials

Selected Publications

(1) Narinder Singh, Beant Kaur Billing, Jasminder Singh, Prabhat K Agnihotri, “Thiourea Based Dipodal Receptor Development for Electrochemical Detection of Br− Ion in an Aqueous Medium”, Electroanalysis, 2015.

(2) B. Billing, J. Singh, Prabhat K. Agnihotri, N. Singh, “Development of dipodal electrochemical sensor for selective recognition of PO43- using organic nanoparticles in aqueous medium”, Electrochimica Acta, 182 (2015), 1112-1117.

(3) Prabhat K. Agnihotri and Erik Van der Giessen, “On the rate sensitivity from discrete dislocation plasticity”, Mech. Mater., 90 (2015), 37-46.

(4) Prabhat K. Agnihotri, K. K. Kar and Sumit Basu, “A cohesive zone model for carbon nanotubecoated carbon fiber/polymer multiscale composites”, Model. Simul. Mater. Sci. Eng., 20 (2012), 035014.

(5) Prabhat K. Agnihotri, Sumit Basu and K. K. Kar, “Effect of carbon nanotube length and density on the properties of carbon nanotube-coated carbon fiber/polyester composites”, Carbon, 49 (2011), 3098-3016.

(6) Prabhat K. Agnihotri and Sumit Basu, “Single-Walled Nanotubes as Kirchoff’s Elasticas”, Int. J. App. Mech., 2 (2010), 719-743.

(7) Kamal K. Kar, A. Rahman, P. Agnihotri, D. Sathiyamoorthy, “Synthesis of Carbon Nanotubes on the Surface of Carbon Fiber/fabric by Catalytic Chemical Vapor Deposition and Their Characterization”, Fuller. Nanotub. Carbon N., 13 (2009), 209-229.

Book Chapters

(1) Prabhat Agnihotri and Kamal K Kar, “Molecular Dynamic Simulation of Deformation Behavior of Carbon Nanotubes Under Generic Modes of Loading”, in Carbon Nanotube based Nanocomposites: Recent Development, Editors: Kamal K. Kar and A. Hodzic, Research Publishing Services (RPS), Singapore.

Patents

(1) K. K. Kar, P. Kumar, N. G. R. Iyenger and P. Agnihotri, “Carbon nanotube and nanoparticle coated carbon fiber reinforced polymer hybrid nanocomposite with improved thermomechanical properties and a process for preparation thereof”,Indian Patent No. 258293 (Grant date: 27-12-2013).

(2) K. K. Kar, P. Agnihotri and S. Dasgupta, “CNT coated long fiber and process and preparation thereof”,Indian Patent No. 260562 (Grant date: 08-05-2014).

(3) K. K. Kar, P. Agnihotri and S. Dasgupta, “Nickel coated carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites and method for the preparation thereof”, Indian Patent Number 249343 (Grant date: 18-10-2013).

(4) K. K. Kar, P. Agnihotri and S. Dasgupta, “A method for preparation of nanoparticle coated carbon fiber”, Indian Patent No. 250274 (Grant date 21-12-2011).