Multiscale Analysis of Complex Interfacial Phenomena (MACIPh): Coarse graining, Molecular modelling, stochasticity, and experimentation

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The occurrence of interfaces, i.e. material or geometric frontiers between regimes with different physical properties not a priori prescribed, arises in an enormous number of inherently nonlinear problems from fluid-solid mechanics and financial mathematics to materials science and glaciology. The study of interfaces encounters, in addition to the presence of a free boundary, several other challenging aspects and complexities, including a physically proper description of the dynamics of three-phase contact lines, fluid motion over substrates with complex geometry, concentration-dependent physical properties, the presence of nanoparticles and phase transitions. We refer to these as complex interfacial phenomena (CIPh).The proposed research is a synergistic approach combining state-of-the-art modelling, simulations and experimentation to scrutinise a number of open problems and research directions in the area of CIPh. The aim is to rationally understand and systematically predict their physical behaviour and properties. This in turn will allow for step improvements to the performance and efficiency of a host of technologies and applications that rely crucially on CIPh. The theoretical-computational work will be complemented by detailed small-scale experiments that will act so as to verify the efficacy of the developed models, as well as aiding the development of a toolkit for practical applications. The work will be undertaken by a team from the Chemical Engineering and Mathematics Departments at Imperial College London with complementary skills and strengths.