Investigation and control of the liquid flow through nanoscalic packed beds

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The objective of the described proposal is the study of flow of an incompressible liquid through a packed bed composed of nanoscalic particles. In a packed bed single particles are randomly and densely distributed while a liquid flows through the porous structure. The packed beds considered in this project, consist of rigid particles in the range between 10 and 1000 nm. While the flow through macroscalic packed beds with larger particle sizes has been investigated intensely in the past, the passage of a liquid through a nanoscalic packed bed has not yet been the focus of research in fluid dynamics and process engineering. In comparison to macroscalic packed beds, nanoscalic systems have a much higher specific surface which strongly interacts with the liquid flow through it. It is well known that electrokinetic effects at the particle surface play an important role in that nanometer range. Those effects depend on the electrolytic properties of the liquid and the electric properties of the particle surfaces. We want to investigate how far those effects can be used to control the flow and the bed struture. It seems reasonable that the permeation can be increased or decreased or even switched on or off by immobilizing part of the liquid inside the electrochemical double layer. Analogies to sintered membranes and membranes in general shall be surveyed.