Forced and natural wetting on non-uniform surfaces: overcoming obstacles to predictive modelling

拟议的研究的目的是实现新兴的潜力，令人兴奋的介观和多尺度建模技术，以解决工业和根本上重要的流体流动问题，迄今为止，逃避所有尝试在实际上有用的，预测建模。主要关注“真实的”固体表面的强制润湿，即那些表现出粗糙度、孔隙度和/或化学不均匀性的表面-这类流动在涂料和印刷行业以及许多其他应用中非常重要。拟议项目的愿景是解决目前的障碍，成功应用介观建模等流动，从而提供一个根本性的变化，过程建模能力，允许第一次准确预测给定的表面形态和性能的润湿过程的性能的影响，并对最终产品的影响。该项目的成功还将使人们更好地了解介观建模的能力，在从微流体设备到提高石油采收率和二氧化碳封存的广泛应用中受益，并提供对新技术进行详细概念验证模拟的手段。

The purpose of the proposed research is to realise the burgeoning potential of exciting mesoscopic and multiscale modelling techniques to address industrially and fundamentally important fluid flow problems that have hitherto eluded all attempts at practically useful, predictive modelling. The primary focus is on the forced wetting of 'real' solid surfaces, i.e. those exhibiting roughness, porosity and/or chemical heterogeneity - a class of flows that is enormously important in the coating and printing industries, among many other applications. The vision for the proposed project is to address current obstacles to the successful application of mesoscopic modelling to such flows, and thereby to deliver a fundamental change in process modelling capabilities, permitting for the first time the accurate prediction of the influences of given surface morphologies and properties on the performance of the wetting process, and the impact upon the end product. Success in this project will also lead to a better understanding of the capabilities of mesoscopic modelling, yielding benefits in a wide range of applications, from microfluidic devices to enhanced oil recovery and carbon dioxide sequestration, and providing the means to perform detailed proof-of-concept simulations for new technologies.