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

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