Levich Institute Seminar Announcement, 02/19/2008
Tuesday, 02/19/2008
2:00 PM
Steinman Hall, Room #312
(Chemical Engineering Conference Room)

Professor Andrea Prosperetti
The Johns Hopkins University
Mechanical Engineering Department

"Some Flows with Bubbles and Particles"

ABSTRACT


Some recent work on a few flow problems involving bubbles and particles will be described. (1) Long gas bubbles rising in a tube (the so-called Taylor bubbles) are found to lose axial symmetry when the liquid flows against gravity; a description of the underlying physical mechanism will be given. (2) A buoyant particle in a horizontally rotating drum finds an equilibrium position where it rotates with an angular velocity which may exceed that of the drum; the results of experiments and simulations will be illustrated. (3) The gravitational settling of a large number of particles is a challenging computational problem; a new, physics-based, efficient algorithm to simulate the process will be described. (4) The talk concludes with a micro-fluidic ``acoustic fish''. [Supported by NSF and TNW]

BRIEF ACADEMIC/EMPLOYMENT BACKGROUND:
  • Charles A. Miller Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University 1994-, Baltimore MD 21218 USA
  • Berkhoff Professor, Department of Applied Sciences and Burgerscentrum 1999-, University of Twente, AE7500 Enschede The Netherlands
  • Ph.D. in Engineering Science, California Institute of Technology 1974
  • Laurea in Fisica, Universita' di Milano (Italy) 1968
  • Professor, Dept Mech Eng Johns Hopkins University 1985-

CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS:

Multiphase flow, acoustics, computational methods