GOALI: Collaborative Research: Aerosol Droplets Migration in Fibrous Media

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Vahedi Tafreshi, Hooman / Chase, George 1402655 / 1402336 Virginia Commonwealth University / University of Akron Efficient removal of finely dispersed droplets from gases or immiscible fluids is crucially important in a vast variety of applications such as diesel fuel purification to prevent corrosion and engine damage, pollution control for environmental protection and our health and safety, efficient water management in fuel cells, and even fog collection for water harvesting, among many others. Understanding the dynamics, coalescence, and migration of liquid droplets is the fundamental knowledge required for the proper design of liquid-liquid and liquid-gas separation fibrous media. As the physics of droplets coalescing on fibers of different wettability is highly complicated, the existing droplet separation media are generally manufactured through a series of inefficient and expensive trial-and-error processes. This proposal is a combined experimental-computational study to develop a generalized theory to describe the coalescence and movement of droplets on a fiber and between fibers, and thereby provide a more accurate method of designing liquid-liquid and liquid-gas separation media. The proposed research is a coupled multiscale-simulation-multiscale-experiment approach that 1) circumvents the need for excessive computational power, and 2) allows studying the physics of the problem at a fundamental level while producing an applied theory. Successful completion of this research will lead to the creation of enabling knowledge to design coalescing fibrous media based on engineering science, rather than trial-and-error. Educated design of droplet separation media can lead to significant savings in energy costs and the costs associated with pollution control. This work involves multiple students from K-12 through graduate. Students from underrepresented minorities will be recruited to participate in the proposed research program. Videos and images of droplet motions on fibers from experiments and models will be made available to the public for educational use. Educational materials will also be developed and incorporated into new graduate/undergraduate courses on multiphase transport in porous materials.