Levich Institute Seminar Announcement, 04/05/2005

Tuesday, 04/05/2005 2:00 PM Steinman Hall, Room #312 (Chemical Engineering Conference Room) Professor Sanjoy Banerjee University of California at Santa Barbara Department of Chemical Engineering "Computational Modeling for Complex Fluid Formations" (This seminar is co-sponsored by the CREST Center for Mesoscopic Modeling and Simulation)

ABSTRACT
Complex fluid formulations, such as paints, polymeric liquids, cosmetics, personal care and some pharmaceutical products, are usually mixtures characterized by many components, multiple coexisting phases, and structural heterogeneities spanning a wide range of length scales. The nano- and micro-structure of such formulations are significantly affected by processing, which determines their macroscopic behavior and properties. The design of new formulations typically proceeds by trial and error, perhaps using historical recipes as a starting point. Theory and computation could potentially speed the design process, but direct use of inter-atom potentials in molecular dynamics or Monte Carlo simulations have not yet been able to resolve the structural scales of interest, which are much larger than atomic dimensions. Alternative approaches based on self consistent field theory are discussed. These lead to two- (or multi-) fluid models for coupled structure-flow problems that incorporate an effective Hamiltonian in terms of the local chemical potentials and order parameters. Simulations will be presented to assess scaling laws during coarsening and demonstrate that shear-induced effects on formulation structure can be captured. Depending on the conditions, forms such as necklaces of drops, cylindrical strings, lamellae or more complex bi-continuous structures can be obtained, which correspond to experimental results.

BRIEF ACADEMIC/EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

Sanjoy Banerjee is Professor of Chemical Engineering with a joint appointment is Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara where he has been since 1980, serving as Department Chair from 1984-89. Before that he was the Westinghouse Professor of Engineering Physics at McMaster University, and also worked at Atomic Energy of Canada. He has had visiting appointments as Guest Professor , ETHZ (1990), Mitsubishi Professor, University of Tokyo (1996 Fall), Burgers Professor, TU Delft (1996 Spring) and the Sharma Professor, UDCT Bombay (2003). He has received various awards, amongst them the Danckwerts Memorial Lectureship (IChemE), Melville Medal (ASME) and Heat Transfer Memorial Award (ASME).

RECENT RESEARCH INTERESTS

Turbulence and multiphase/complex flows