Research
Finite-inertia effects in colloidal and non-colloidal systems
Principal investigator: |
Flows containing solid particles underpin a huge variety of technologies, from microfluidics to fluidized beds. In the vast majority of simulations of particulate materials, forces and torques on the particles are either modelled ad-hoc, or treated neglecting non-linearities in the Navier-Stokes equation. Physalis, a numerical method that I co-developed during my PhD, is able to calculate hydrodynamic interaction between particles and their transport owing to fluid motion from first principles, i.e. by solving the full Navier-Stokes equation and enforcing the no-slip condition exactly. The figures below show a numerical study of the sedimentation of a semi-concentrated suspension at finite Reynolds number (Fig. 1) , and the interaction of finite-size particles with a stream of homogeneous-isotropic turbulence (Fig. 2).