Faculty Details

Professor Manna is a renowned academician and prolific researcher with wide ranging research interests concerning microstructure-property-parameter correlation in nanometric and amorphous solids, laser and plasma assisted surface engineered components, bainitic and ODS steel and nano-fluid. His significant contribution in the study of amorphous/nanocrystalline Al-alloys, nano-fluid and laser/plasma assisted surface engineering received intense attention from the scientific community and is highly lauded. His early contributions in moving boundary phase transformation are still widely cited. Professor Manna has over 300 publications in peer reviewed journals and proceedings. He has supervised over 20 PhD theses. While serving in the Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Department at IIT Kharagpur, Professor Manna developed several new research laboratories and facilities like plasma ion implantation and coating unit (DST, Tata Steel), Mechanical Alloying laboratory (DST, CSIR), Wear and erosion testing laboratory (CSIR, Tata Steel, DST), Electron bean joining facility (BRNS), Pulsed laser deposition and FE-SEM laboratory (DST), Nanofluid synthesis and characterization laboratory (ISRO), etc.

Research Highlights on Nanostructured Solids:

Through pain-staking and dedicated efforts sustained over two decades involving multiple students, scholars, colleagues and sponsored projects, Professor Manna has made seminal and outstanding contributions in synthesizing several nanostructured materials in different form/architecture (bulk alloys with in-situ nanometric precipitate-phases, ex-situ nanometric solid dispersed solid alloys and nanofluids, nanometric films/coatings, nano-composites/hybrids, etc) and establishing correlation between length, size, volume or type of the smallt crystallite (coherence length, morphology, free volume, interface, crystal structure) and engineering properties of interest (mechanical strength, hardness, softening, thermal conductivity, superparamagnetism, surface wear/friction, sensing response, diffusivity, catalysis) in nanostructured particles/aggregates synthesized by various advanced material processing techniques (mechanical alloying/milling, vapor deposition, sputtering, laser surface engineering, plasma ion implantation, etc.). These investigations revealed and established some of the significant fundamental knowledge or understanding about material properties at small length scale.

Research Area

• Nanostructured materials
• Laser/plasma aided surface engineering
• Bainitic and special steel
• Phase transformation in solids
• Microstructure-property correlation

Principal Investigator

• Laser-Assisted Additive Manufacturing of Steel (LAMS) Apex Committee of SPARC
• Impacting Research Innovation and Technology (IMPRINT) Round-I Operational Project for IMPRINT I Cell at IIT Kharagpur Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Higher Education, Government of India
• Development of Novel Multioxide In-situ Thermal Barrier Coating for High Temperature Oxidation Resistance using Thermal Spray and Self-propagating High-temperature Synthesis (SHS) KCSTC
• Development of Microstructurally, compositionally and Functionally Graded Components by Laser Assisted Materials Processing [LAMP] Department of Science and Technology(DST)
• JC Bose Fellowship 2016 Department of Science and Technology(DST)

Co-Principal Investigator

• Establishment of Ultra-Short Pulsed Laser Processing Regime for Surface Treatment of Titanium based Implant for the Tailored Mechano-Chemical Property in Simulated Environment Department of Science and Technology(DST)
• Development of Nano-structured CoNiCrAly Bond Coat by HVOF Spraying for Thermal Barrier Coating Application KCSTC

• Fellow & Engg Sci Prize, TWAS
• Fellow of INAE (FNAE)
• Fellow of INSA (FNA)
• Humboldt Fellowship
• INSA Young Scientist