Dynamics of liquids spreading on compliant substrates

这项拟议的工作将涉及详细检查充满表面活性添加剂的铺展液体与由凝胶状材料制成的底层顺应性衬底之间的相互作用。这项为期三年的研究将包括仔细的实验，由研究生进行，以及详细的建模，将由两年的博士后相关研究进行。后者的开始将比前者晚一年，以便让实验结果指导建模工作。这项工作将是一名化学工程师、一名化学家和一名应用数学家(来自系)之间的合作。化学工程系和系。ICL数学系)；学生和博士后将位于系里。化学工程系。实验将使用光学方法研究凝胶强度和厚度、表面活性剂类型和浓度对扩散特性的影响，而建模工作将使用润滑和弹性理论来推导预测模型。这项多学科工作的结果将阐明扩散液体和底层凝胶状材料之间的复杂相互作用，这是一系列工程、生物和生物医学环境的核心问题，例如药物在人体内的输送和凝胶状材料(例如粘液)的扩散，照相胶片制造中凝胶层的沉积和扩散，以及油层中凝胶的破裂和随后的移除。

The proposed work will involve a detailed examination of the interaction between a spreading liquid, laden with surface active additives, and an underlying compliant substrate made of a gel-like material. This three-year investigation will involve careful experimentation, to be carried out by a postgraduate student, and detailed modelling, to be carried out by a two-year postdoctoral research associated. The start of the latter will lag that of the former by a year in order to allow the experimental findings to guide the modelling effort. This work will be a collaboration between a chemical engineer, a chemist and an applied mathematician (from the Dept. of Chemical Engineering and the Dept. of Mathematics at ICL); the student and the postdoc will be located in the Dept. of Chemical Engineering. The experiments will examine the effect of gel strength and thickness, and surfactant type and concentration on the spreading characteristics using optical methods, while the modelling effort will use lubrication and elasticity theory to derive predictive models. The results of this multi-disciplinary work will elucidate the complex interactions between spreading liquids and underlying gel-like materials, which is a problem that lies at the heart of a range of engineering, biological and biomedical settings, such as drug delivery and spreading of gel-like materials (e.g. mucus) in the human body, deposition and spreading of gel layers in the manufacturing of photographic films, and cracking and subsequent removal of gels in oil reservoirs.