Nasser Mohieddin Abukhdeir, PEng

Prof. Abukhdeir's research develops computational methods for multiphysics processes which involve coupled fluid mechanics, heat and mass transfer, and chemical or biochemical reactions across widely separated time and length scales. His group develops and extends continuum-scale models and the numerical tools to solve them, with an emphasis on conditions that make conventional simulation approaches impractical: multiphase flows, (bio)chemical reactions, and computational complexity (cost).

His research program is based on a "feedback loop" between computational methods development and real-world engineering applications. Foundational work on multiscale multiphase flow modelling, phase field and diffuse-interface methods, and CFD-informed reduced-order modelling enables applications ranging from industrial multiphase reactors to habitat modelling. The latter involves treating built environments as coupled transport and reaction systems, from buildings and greenhouses to life support systems for space colonization. The "feedback loop" is driven by applications-focused research, itself driven by societal need, which expose gaps the computational methods and models that are used which inform the next round of methods and model development.

The foundation for Prof. Abukhdeir's research group is based on his PhD research with Prof. Alejandro Rey in the area of soft condensed matter physics — liquid crystal phase transitions, phase transformation, and defect dynamics. Many of the same phase-field and interface-capturing techniques that are now applied to multiphase flow models are related to this past scientific research area and remain integral to the group's current work on multiphase flow formulation and numerical methods.

Prof. Abukhdeir is a founding member of the Computational Multiphysics Research Group (COMPHYS) at the University of Waterloo, a multidisciplinary team that includes collaborators in applied mathematics, physics, and chemical engineering. The group maintains several open-source software packages which implement computational methods developed through ongoing research including

- OpenCMP, a discontinuous Galerkin finite element method (DG-FEM) multiphysics simulation software for single and multiphase multiphysics processes based on the NGSolve DG-FEM library.

- OpenCCM, a CFD-informed compartment modelling software package primarily intended for convection-dominated flow processes with (bio)chemical reaction which is compatible with OpenCMP CFD simulation flow data.

- shapelets, a Python library that implements several shapelet functions (complete and orthogonal set of localized basis functions) and many of their applications in science and engineering including astronomy/astrophysics, nanostructure characterization, computational neuroscience, and medical imaging.

• computational multiphysics

• computational fluid dynamics

• reacting multiphase flows

• dynamics of liquid crystal domains

• computational methods in engineering

• 2010, Doctorate Chemical Engineering, McGill University, Canada

• 2002, Master of Engineering Chemical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, USA

• 2002, Bachelor of Science (BSc) Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, USA

• 2002, Bachelor of Science (BSc) Chemical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, USA

• CHE 102 - Chemistry for Engineers
  • Taught in 2026
• CHE 383 - Chemical Engineering Design Workshop
  • Taught in 2026
• CHE 500 - Special Topics in Chemical Engineering
  • Taught in 2021
• CHE 520 - Process Flowsheet Analysis
  • Taught in 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
• CHE 601 - Theory and Application of Transport Phenomena
  • Taught in 2021, 2022
• CHE 620 - Applied Engineering Mathematics
  • Taught in 2021

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

• A Fazeli*, S Rhebergen, NM Abukhdeir (2026), Laminar dispersion force effects on two-fluid modelling and simulation of bubble column hydrodynamics, International Journal of Multiphase Flow, Volume 197, 105590.

• AA Vasile*, MG Aucoin, H Budman, NM Abukhdeir (2026), Flow alignment-informed method for compartmental modelling of multiphase flows, Chemical Engineering Science, Volume 231, 744-759.

• C Chin*, MP Tino*, NM Abukhdeir (2026), An unsupervised shapelet-based method for quantification of nanostructured surface imaging, International Journal of Computational Materials Science and Engineering, 2550040.

• A Fazeli*, S Rhebergen, NM Abukhdeir (2026), Dispersed-phase molecular fluxes in the canonical formulation of the two-fluid model, International Journal of Multiphase Flow.

• I Promma*, MG Aucoin, NM Abukhdeir, H Budman (2025), Modeling heterogeneity in large‐scale bioreactors using the method of moments with a truncated normal distribution, AIChE Journal, e18922.

• MP Tino*; R Suderman; NM Abukhdeir (2024), Shapelet-based orientation and defect identification method for nanostructured surface imaging, Nanotechnology, Volume 35, Issue 16, 165705.

• Food to go - and go and go
• Professor provides tough love to budding entrepreneurs