-----------------------------------------------------------

Fluid Dynamics Seminar

Monday, March 1, 2010, 4:00 PM
Cullimore Hall 611
New Jersey Institute of Technology

The moving contact line problem and the spreading of liquid thin films

Christel Hohenegger

Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University

Abstract

One of the challenges in modeling the transport properties of complex fluids (e.g. many biofluids, polymer solutions, particle suspensions) is describing the interaction between the suspended micro-structure with the fluid itself. I will discuss two particular examples.

Suspensions of active particles, like swimming bacteria or artificial micro-swimmers, have been studied intensely over the past few years. Using a recently derived kinetic model, I have investigated the linearized structure of such an active system near a state of uniformity and isotropy. As a result a prediction about the onset of the instability as a function of the volume concentration of anterior actuated swimmers can be made.

Microrheology is a recent experimental method which seeks to use statistical quantities to estimate the viscous and elastic properties of materials from very small volume samples. Following the basic model of two-point microrheology, I have developed a Langevin-based model of the coupled fluctuations of two beads in a viscoelastic liquid and from this derive new relations between measurable quantities and fluid response properties.