Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, 1984 M.S. University of California, Berkeley, 1979 B.A.Sc., University of Toronto, 1978

Fluid Mechanics Reactor Physics and Engineering Reactor Thermal-Hydraulics

Prof. Masahiro Kawaji is Michael Pope Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the City University of New York – City College (CCNY). Before coming to CCNY in 2009, he was a Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry at the University of Toronto in Canada since 1986. At CCNY, he has been a PI of many research projects sponsored by the US Department of Energy (DOE), National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). He also served as the PI of NSF’s Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) project,  “Multi-scale, Multi-phase Phenomena in Complex Fluids for the Energy Industries” which was completed in 2024. He serves as an Associate Director of the CUNY Energy Institute and runs the Thermofluids Laboratory at CCNY. He is a Fellow of both the Canadian Academy of Engineering and American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).

His research has focused on energy and energy-related multiphase flow, phase change heat transfer, thermal energy storage and transport, advanced nuclear reactors, microfluidics, heat pipes and microgravity fluid physics. Research papers have been published in mechanical, chemical and nuclear engineering journals. Since 2011, he has been conducting High Temperature Gas Reactor (HTGR) thermal-hydraulics research involving high pressure/high temperature helium gas flow and heat transfer experiments. He was a PI or Co-PI of seven projects sponsored by the Department of Energy’s Nuclear Engineering University Program (NEUP), all related to the HTGR thermal-hydraulics and safety. All of these NEUP Projects involved design and construction of new experimental facilities to investigate (i) forced convection heat transfer and natural circulation of helium gas in a heated graphite test section at up to 70 atm pressure and 600 oC, (ii) helium-air mixing in a simulated HTGR Cavity system consisting of five interconnected cavities, (iii) natural circulation of helium gas in a multi-channel high pressure/high temperature flow loop, and (iv) cooling of a horizontal Micro-HTGR pressure vessel in a transport container. All of the PhD and Master’s students involved in these projects have been able to gain extensive knowledge of HTGR designs

More details can be found at Masahiro Kawaji – CUNY Energy Institute

Keynote Papers and Presentations

• Kawaji, M., Fournaison, L. and Guilpart, J., 2007. Understanding of Ice Slurry and Low Temperature Phase Change Slurries for Thermal Storage and Transport Applications, Paper ICR07-E1-1068 in Proc. of the International Congress of Refrigeration, August 21-26, 2007, Beijing, China.
• Kawaji, M., 2008. Unique Aspects of Adiabatic Two-Phase Flow in Microchannels, a Keynote paper presented at the Third ECI International Conference on Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow in Microscale, September 21-26 2008, Whistler, B.C., Canada.
• Kawaji, M., 2010. Macroscopic and Microscale Phenomena encountered in Multiphase Energy Storage and Transport Systems, to be presented at the International Heat Transfer Conference, August 8-10, 2010, Washington D.C., USA.

Books

• Kauffeld, M., Kawaji, M. and Egolf P.W., 2005. Handbook on Ice Slurries: Fundamentals and Engineering, International Institute of Refrigeration, Paris, France.
• Kabov O., Kawaji, M., Ohta H., and Zhao J.F. (Ed.), 2008. Journal of Microgravity Science and Technology, Vol. 20, No. 3-4, 2008.
• Kabov O., Kawaji, M. Ohta, H. and Zhao, J.F. (Ed.), 2009. Journal of Microgravity Science and Technology, Vol. 21, Supplement 1, September, 2009.

Journal Papers

• Abubakar, A., Sieh, B., Bindra, H., Schultz, R.R., Shahrokhi, F., McEligot, D.M., Kalaga, D.V., and Kawaji, M., 2025. Effects of Break Geometry and Orientation on Helium-Air Mixing in Simulated Reactor Cavities of High Temperature Gas Reactors, Nuclear Engineering and Design, Volume 433, 113878.    
• Abubakar, A., Davis, M., Ahmed, Z., Kalaga, D.V. and Kawaji, M., 2024. Helium-Air mixing in Simulated Reactor Cavities of High Temperature Gas Reactors, Nuclear Engineering and Design, 420, 113014, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2024.113014
• Velez, A.F., Kalaga, D.V., and Kawaji, M., 2024. Liquid Flow Patterns and Particle Settling Velocity in a Taylor-Couette Cell Using Particle Image Velocimetry and Particle Tracking Velocimetry, SPE Journal, SPE J. 1–18, Paper Number SPE-219459-PA. 
• Casanova, K.M., Echevarria, M., McCreery, G.E., Heath, S., Williams, B.G., Schulrtz, R.R., Nolan,  K., Kahler, C., Kawaji, M., McEligot, D.M., 2023. Flow friction in a wide rectangular duct with a beveled inlet, Idaho National Laboratory Report, INL/MIS-23-74144-Rev000.
• ArunKumar, K.E., Kalaga, D.V., Ch. Mohan Sai Kumar, Kawaji, M., Brenza. T.M., 2022. Comparative analysis of Gated Recurrent Units (GRU), long Short-Term memory (LSTM) cells, autoregressive Integrated moving average (ARIMA), seasonal autoregressive Integrated moving average (SARIMA) for forecasting COVID-19 trends, Alexandria Engineering Journal, Vol. 61, Issue 10, October 2022, pp. 7585-7603. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2022.01.011 
• Ahmed, S., Pandey. M. and Kawaji, M., 2022. Loop Heat Pipe Design: An Evaluation of Recent Research on the Selection of Evaporator, Wick and Working Fluid, ASME Journal of Thermal Science and Engineering Applications. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4052593l
• ArunKumar, K.E., Kalaga, D.V., Kumar, C.M.S., Chilkoor, G., Kawaji, M., Brenza, T.M., 2021. Forecasting the dynamics of cumulative COVID-19 cases (confirmed, recovered and deaths) for top-16 countries using statistical machine learning models: Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) and Seasonal Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA), Applied Soft Computing, Vol.103, 107161.
• ArunKumar, K.E., Kalaga, D.V., Kumar, C.M.S., Kawaji, M., 2021. Forecasting of COVID-19 using deep layer recurrent neural networks (RNNs) with gated recurrent units (GRUs) and long short-term memory (LSTM) cells, Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Vol. 146, 110861.
• Arai, T. and Kawaji, M., 2021. Thermal performance and flow characteristics in additive manufactured polycarbonate pulsating heat pipes with Novec 7000, Applied Thermal Engineering, 197, 117273 doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2021.117273
• Kawaji, M., Lyubimov, D., Ichikawa, N., Lyubimova, T., Kariyasaki, A. and Tryggvason, B., 2021. The Effects of Forced vibration on the motion of a large bubble under microgravity, Microgravity Science and Technology, 33 (5), 1-18.
• Ofei, T. N., Kalaga, D.V., Lund, B., Saasen, A., Linga, H., Sangesland, S., Gyland, K.R., Kawaji, M., 2021. Laboratory Evaluation of Static and Dynamic Sag in Oil-Based Drilling Fluids, Society of Petroleum Engineers Journal, 26(03), 1072-1091.
• Kalaga, D.V., Ansari, M., Turney, D.E., Hernandez-Alvaradoa, F., Kleinbart, S., ArunKumard, K.E., Joshi, J.B., Banerjee, S., Kawaji, M., 2020. Scale-up of a downflow bubble column: Experimental investigations, Chemical Engineering Journal, 386, 121447. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2019.04.027
• Kawahara, A., Chung. P.M.Y., and Kawaji, M., 2002. Investigation of two-phase flow pattern, void fraction and pressure drop in a microchannel. International J. Multiphase Flow, Vol. 28/9, pp. 1411-1435.
• Hassan, S., Lyubimova, T.P., Lyubimov, D.V. and Kawaji, M., 2006. The effects of vibrations on particle motion in a semi-infinite fluid cell. ASME J. Applied Mechanics, Vol. 73(4), pp. 610-621.
• Hassan, S., Kawaji M., Lyubimova T.P., and Lyubimov D.V., 2006. Effects of vibrations on particle motion near a wall: Existence of attraction force. International J. Multiphase Flow, Vol. 32, pp. 1027-1054.
• Simic-Stefani, S., Kawaji, M. and Hu, H., 2006. G-jitter induced motion of a protein crystal under microgravity. Journal of Crystal Growth, Vol. 294, pp. 373-384.
• Simic-Stefani, S., Kawaji, M. and Yoda, S., 2006. Onset of oscillatory thermocapillary flow in acetone liquid bridges: the effect of evaporation. International J. Heat and Mass Transfer, Vol. 49, pp. 3167-3179.
• Pan, S., Yan, Y., Jaber, T.J., Kawaji, M. and Saghir, Z.M., 2007. Evaluation of thermal diffusion models for ternary hydrocarbon mixtures. J. of Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics, Vol. 32(3), pp. 241-249.
• Ide, H., Kimura, R., and Kawaji, M., 2007. Optical measurement of void fraction and bubble size distributions in a microchannel. Heat Transfer Engineering, Vol. 28, No. 8, pp. 713-719.
• Pan, S., Saghir, Z.M., Jiang, C.G., Yan, Y. and Kawaji, M., 2007. A theoretical approach to evaluate thermodiffusion in alkanol aqueous solutions. J. of Chemical Physics, Vol. 126, 014502.
• Hassan, S. and Kawaji, M., 2008. The effects of vibrations on particle motion in a fluid cell: Effect of liquid viscosity. ASME Journal of Applied Mechanics, Vol. 75, Issue 3, 031012 (published on line).
• Ide, H., Kimura, R., and Kawaji, M., 2009. Effect of Inlet Geometry on Adiabatic Gas-Liquid Two-Phase Flow in a Microchannel, Heat Transfer Engineering, Vol. 30, No.1 & 2, pp. 37-42.
• Kawaji, M., Mori, K., and Bolintineanu, D., 2009. The effects of inlet geometry and gas-liquid mixing on two-phase flow in microchannels, ASME Journal of Fluids Engineering, Vol. 131, Issue 4, Article Number: 041302 (7 pages).
• Abbasi, A., Saghir, M.Z., and Kawaji, M., 2009. A New Approach for the Prediction of the Thermal Diffusion Factor in Associating Mixtures: Comparison with Existing Experimental Data. J. of Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics, Vol. 130, No. 6 Article Number: 064506 (6 pages).
• Abbasi, A., Saghir, Z. and Kawaji, M., 2009. A New Proposed Approach to Estimate the Thermodiffusion Coefficients for Linear Chain Hydrocarbon Binary Mixtures. J. Chemical Physics, Vol. 131, Issue 1, Article Number: 014502.
• Liang, R.Q. and Kawaji, M., 2009. Surface Oscillation of a Liquid Bridge Induced by Single and Multiple Vibrations. Microgravity Science and Technology, Vol. 21, Supplement 1, pp. 31-37.
• Santos, R. and Kawaji, M., 2010. Numerical Modeling and Experimental Investigation of Gas-Liquid Slug Formation in a Microchannel T-Junction. Int. J. Multiphase Flow, Vol. 36, pp. 314–323.
• Saadatmand, M. and Kawaji, M., 2010. Effect of Viscosity on Vibration-Induced Particle Motion under Microgravity. Microgravity Science and Technology, in press.

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