Posted on: 8 June 2018

Dear colleagues,

On 25 July 2018 at 14:00, room Z105, Christian Diddens from the Physics of Fluids group (UT) will present a Computational Science Lecture titled:

Finite element simulations of multi-component droplets 

Abstract:

In many applications in fluid dynamics, one encounters problems that

require the treatment of multiple phases, where each phase is

constituted by more than one component.

As an example, one can consider the field of inkjet printing, where the

printed droplets are constituted by a mixture of several components

with different volatilities.

Due to the different mass transfer rates of the individual components,

solutal gradients emerge and intriguing phenomena can be observed,

including regular or chaotic solutal Marangoni flow or significant

natural convection, even below the millimeter scale.

In order to treat these problems numerically, we have developed a sharp

interface finite element method using an arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian

approach. While the usage of a sharp and mesh-aligned interface comes

with some drawbacks for topological changes of the phase distribution,

it can easily treat arbitrary density ratios and accurately account for

capillary effects including Marangoni flow. 

The potential of this versatile method is illustrated by representative

simulations of the complex and intriguing field of evaporating and

dissolving multi-component droplets, which show a perfect agreement

with the corresponding experiments. 

Best regards,

Thomas, Wouter and Claudia