The Department of Applied Physics at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) has a scientific and technical staff of about 90 and 60 people, respectively, as well as 110 graduate and 375 undergraduate students.
The research in the group Mesoscopic Transport Phenomena focuses on fluid dynamics at length scales ranging from 10 nm to 1 mm. It comprises both fundamental and application-inspired topics ranging from fluid physics at nano-scales to manufacturing processes of optoelectronic devices.
Current and commencing projects concern dip- and die-coating of chemically patterned substrates, flows driven by temperature and concentration gradients, flows dominated by van der Waals forces as well as flows involving phase changes.
Project discription:
Biological cells such as red blood cells, but also vesicles, bubbles, or polymer particles often consist of a soft deformable membrane / interface and are filled with a viscous fluid. The properties of the surrounding solvent as well as the geometry of a confining vessel structure can strongly influence the behaviour of such particles. If the underlying processes are well understood, a vast number of applications including for example blood transport in microchannels or polymer deposition on complex surfaces appears.
Computer simulations are a valuable tool to contribute to our understanding and to assist in the development of applications, but an applicable simulation method requires a proper treatment of the membrane, the hydrodynamics of multiple fluid phases, as well as the electrostatic properties of the particles and solvent.
