Modelling the Complex Dynamics of Particles at Interfaces

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Many chemical and metallurgical processes involve fluids that interact with solid material in particle/granular form. In some cases the particles are meant to be there; for example, the food and drug industries utilize a variety of processes to coat particles such as pills and candy; another example is the addition of solid particles to a molten polymer, to improve the properties of a final plastic part. On the other hand, there are other industrial processes where the goal is to separate the fluids and particles that are mixed together; the obvious Canadian example is the processing of oil sands, to get the sand out of the oil. All of these processes involve the interaction of multiple fluids (sometimes multiple liquids, sometimes liquids and gases) with solid material. Whether we're trying to improve the quality of a coating process, or improve the efficacy of a separation process, it helps to understand how these multiple fluids and solid particles interact. This proposal is for funds to support a team of engineering graduate students to develop a sophisticated computer program that predicts some basic fluid/solid phenomena, and then to use the program to run simulations that teach us how these fluids and solids interact. We can then use that new-found knowledge to examine the coating and separation (and other) processes, to consider how we might improve them based on what we've learned. This research will be impactful in a number of ways: (1) writing the software will require that we develop new algorithms to model some of the complex interactions between particles and fluids, algorithms that we'll share with others working on similar projects; (2) the simulations will contribute new fundamental knowledge of some basic fluid/particle phenomena, of how single particles act at an interface between two fluids, and how clusters of particles come together or break apart; and (3) the research program will train a number of very talented research engineers, developing sought-after skills in modelling and analysis that these young people will then take with them into research leadership positions in industry and academia.