U.S. participation in the IUTAM Symposium on "Mobile particulate systems: kinematics, rheology and phenomena" Bangalor, India, January 23-27, 2012

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1147517PI: LealThis symposium is sponsored by IUTAM (International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics) as one of the approximately 15 chosen by the IUTAM General Assembly for the current two year period. The main themes of this meeting are granular flows, particle-fluid suspensions, and suspensions of flexible and/or swimming cells and microorganisms. Although there have been meetings and workshops on the individual topics, this is the first meeting so far as the proposer is aware that combines these subjects to seek a synergistic interaction, and thus push all of the topical areas forward. Particle and particle-fluid flows are ubiquitous in nature and in industrial processes, yet their mechanics and kinematics is poorly understood. Such an understanding would be of great value in the design and optimization of processes for the chemical, mineral, food and pharmaceutical industries, and also in mitigating the effects of natural disasters such as avalanches and debris flows. Several factors contribute to the lack of understanding of these systems, such as the complex nature of grain interactions (e.g., friction in dry systems, hydrodynamic interactions in suspensions), limited understanding of the statistics of grain interactions and microstructure, and the strong dependence of these properties on the nature of forcing. The emphasis of this meeting will be on the regimes of flow wherein the particles are mobile or free to flow.The mathematical tools and experimental techniques developed for the granular and suspension flows find application in many areas of complex fluids and multiphase flows. Equally, the development of techniques in allied areas of physics and mathematics will find applications in the understanding of particulate flows. As a specific example, rheological models for anisotropic fluids that have been proposed several decades ago for liquid crystalline mesophases now find application in the modeling of dense granular flows. Similarly, the developments of theoretical and computational tools for Stokesian suspensions now find application in the analysis of biological systems such as swimming microorganisms. Thus, fostering interaction between these communities will therefore be of significant benefit to all these areas.