Fire-Resistant Nature-Derived Composite Materials for Industrial Applications

Dr. Rajeshkumar Lakshminarasimhan is currently working as a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Alliance University, Bengaluru, India. He has completed his post-doctoral research at King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok, Thailand and his doctoral degree at Anna University, Chennai in Composite materials. His research areas include metal matrix and polymer matrix composites, tribology, corrosion and surface engineering, and powder metallurgy. Also, Polymer biocomposites, biofibers and bio fillers, testing and characterization of fibers and composites. He has been granted one Indian patent, three international patents and nine published Indian patents. He has published 37 book chapters and more than 120 research papers in WoS/Scopus indexed journals and International and National conferences. He is an Editorial Board Member for Scientific Reports (Nature), and Associate Section Editor for Heliyon (Materials Science), an Elsevier journal. He is also the reviews editor for the Journal of Thermal Science and Energy Systems and more than 40 reputed international journals. He was listed in the Top 2% of scientists in the world by Stanford University during 2023 Dr. Sathish Kumar Palaniappan, Research Scientist (Specialist 2). Natural Composites Research Group Lab, The Sirindhorn International Thai – German Graduate School of Engineering (TGGS), King Mongkut's University of Technology North Bangkok, Thailand.Dr. Sathish Kumar Palaniappan is currently working as a Research Scientist at King Mongkut's University of Technology North Bangkok, Thailand, where he did his postdoctoral research. He finished his bachelor’s degree in engineering (Mechanical) at the University College of Engineering Villupuram (constituent college of Anna University), Tamil Nadu, India, in 2012. He received his Master of Engineering from Kongu Engineering College in Perundurai, Tamil Nadu, India, in 2014 working in the stream of CAD/CAM. He also finished his PhD in the Department of Mining Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, West Bengal, India in 2021. His research interests include polymer nanocomposites/composites; polymer blends and biomaterials; thin film coatings; tribology; bio-degradable polymers; machining characteristics of ceramics and polymer composites; natural and synthetic polymers; multi-functional composite materials and nanomaterials; and natural fiber reinforced composites. He has been granted one Indian patent and has published more than 70 research papers in international/national journals and 32 book chapters with highly reputed publishers. Dr. Balaji Devarajan is currently working as Head-IPR and Assistant Professor at Department of Mechanical Engineering at KPR Institute of Engineering and Technology, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. His research areas of interest include additive manufacturing of polymers, polymeric biomaterials for structural applications, 3D printing of Natural fiber composites and their testing. He received his honorary doctorate for University of Swahili, Panama. He is a registered patent agent under Government of India. He has 10 granted patents and has published more than 200 patents. He has also published more than 30 articles in reputed international journals and 25 book chapters in books published with leading international publishers. He is also a reviewer for more than 30 reputed journals including Scientific reports and many more. Dr. Sanjay Mavinkere Rangappa is a Principal Research Scientist and Associate Professor at King Mongkut 's University of Technology North Bangkok, Thailand. He also serves as an Advisor within the President' s Office for University Promotion and Development towards International goals. Dr. Rangappa is the Executive Editor of Book Cluster: Fiber Science and Fibrous Composite Materials ( Elsevier), a former Associate Editor of Heliyon (Materials Science), and an Associate Editor of Frontier Materials Journals. He acts as a Board Member and Editor for various international journals in materials science and composites. He has reviewed over 250 international journals, including for Nature, Elsevier, Springer, and Wiley, as well as book proposals and conference submissions. He has published more than 425 articles in top- tier peer- reviewed journals indexed by SCI/Scopus, 13 editorial issues, 100 book chapters, and 70 books as an Editor with leading publishers such as Elsevier, Springer, Taylor & Francis, and Wiley. Additionally, he authored 3 books published by Elsevier and has presented research at numerous national and international conferences. Over 25 of his articles are highly cited in journals like the Journal of Cleaner Production and Carbohydrate Polymers. Dr. Rangappa is the lead editor for several special issues and has a Google Scholar citation count exceeding 39, 000, with an H- index of 100 and An i 100- Index of 475. He holds 1 US Patent, 11 UK Design Patents, 1 Thailand Patent, and 5 Indian patents. He has delivered keynote and invited talks globally, including Russia, South Africa, Malaysia, and India. Currently, he is an Academic Visitor at The University of Portsmouth, UK (2024), with upcoming visiting positions at various Malaysian and Indonesian universities from 2024 to 2027. His research focuses on Natural fiber composites, Polymer Composites, and Advanced Material Technology. He received the ‘Top Peer Reviewer 2019’ award from Publons, and the KMUTNB ‘Outstanding Young Researcher’ (2020) and' Outstanding Researcher’ (2021) awards. Recognized as one of the top 1% most- cited scientists by Stanford University (2019-2025), he ranks 5th in Thailand overall and 2nd In the Polymers category for 2023. He is also listed among the ‘Top 100 Scientists’ in Thailand by AD Scientific Index. Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Suchart Siengchin is a former President of King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok and currently serves as the Director of TechnoPark at the same university. He earned his Dipl.-Ing. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Applied Sciences Giessen/Friedberg, Germany in 1999, followed by an M.Sc. in Polymer Technology from the University of Applied Sciences Aalen in 2002, and another M.Sc. in Material Science from Erlangen-Nürnberg University in 2004. He obtained his Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering (Dr.-Ing.) from the Institute for Composite Materials at the University of Kaiserslautern in 2008, including postdoctoral research at Kaiserslautern University and Purdue University's School of Materials Engineering. In 2016, he received his habilitation from Chemnitz University in Saxony, Germany. In 2024, he was honored as an Honorary Fellow by RWTH Aachen University. He has also served as a Lecturer in Production and Material Engineering at the Sirindhorn International Thai-German Graduate School of Engineering, KMUTNB, and has been a full Professor and President of KMUTNB. He received the Outstanding Researcher Award in 2010, 2012, and 2013 at KMUTNB. His research focuses on Polymer Processing and Composite Materials. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Applied Science and Engineering Progress, a Q1 indexed journal on Scopus, and has authored over 600 peer-reviewed journal articles, 15 editorial contributions, more than 100 book chapters, one authored book, and over 50 edited books. He has presented at more than 70 international and national conferences related to Materials Science and Engineering. Recognized as one of the world’s top 2% scientists by Stanford University for 2021- 2022, he received the National Excellence Researcher Award (Engineering and Research Industry) from Thailand's National Research Council in 2021, and has been listed as a Highly Cited Researcher in 2025 by Clarivate.

• 1. An introduction to fire-resistant materials2. Fire resistance standards and testing methods3. Fire-resistant plant fiber-based composites4. Fire-resistant animal fiber-based composites5. Fire-resistant filler-based fiber composites6. Fire resistance behavior of functional composite materials7. Cellulose-based and paper-based composites for fire-resistant applications8. Aerogel-based composites for fire-resistant applications9. Industrial case-studies, challenges and Future perspectives