ERI: Shear-Flow-Driven Coupled Mechanisms as a Means to Actively Control Particle Dissolution

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This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). The dissolution of solid particles in a liquid is ubiquitous in nature and it arises in a wide array of scientific and industrial applications. Nevertheless, the fundamental mechanisms of dissolution are still an active area of research. In most cases, particle dissolution involves three basic mechanisms: fluid and particle dynamics, mass transfer from a particle to the surrounding fluid, and particle erosion. These three mechanisms are coupled, and they interact with each other through complex nonlinear relationships that are not completely understood. In particular, the effect of hydrodynamics on dissolution arising from fluid-particle interactions has long been overlooked. There is strong evidence that local shear flow enhances mass transfer from the particle surface to the surrounding fluid. This ERI award comprises high-fidelity numerical simulations, high-precision experimental measurements, and novel machine learning techniques that together will help identify the critical role of flow in the dissolution of non-spherical particle systems. This ERI award will focus on 1) the coupling dynamics of fluid and particle motion, mass transfer of dissolved species, and surface erosion of prolate and oblate particles and irregularly shaped particles in simple shear flow; and 2) bridging the gap between microscale dynamics and macroscale descriptions of dissolution in suspensions of particles. High-fidelity modeling of detailed microscale dynamics, including reduced-basis modeling of arbitrarily shaped particles, will be coupled to population balance modeling of the temporal evolution of particle size and shape at the macroscale. The results of the research should provide guidance to actively control particle dissolution by adjusting flow shear rate and the initial distribution of particle size and geometry. The results could be applied in a wide array of applications including biological and chemical synthesis, renewable biomass energy, targeted drug delivery, degradation of biomaterials, and dissolvable microrobots. The research will provide training opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, especially those from groups that are underrepresented in STEM fields.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.