The Micro & Nano Flows Group at the University of Warwick are seeking an outstanding Postdoctoral Research Fellow to develop new computational modelling tools that will enable a step change in our understanding of 3D interfacial instabilities (see header image), for which no theory currently exists, that plague a range of manufacturing processes.
This international and interdisciplinary project will focus on understanding what governs the maximum speed at which liquids spread across (or ‘wet’) solid surfaces after which a 3D sawtooth wetting line appears (see image below). The result of exceeding this threshold is routinely observed, causing raindrops to splash upon impact with a windscreen, and it is the bottleneck to achieving faster liquid-applied coatings (a~$100 billion industry), e.g. for the manufacture of solar cells. This project will explore this phenomenon by building upon recent advances in computational modelling and exploiting a synergy with cutting-edge experimental analysis performed by our partners.
With increasing speed, instability of the contact line drives a transition from 2D flow (left) to a 3D (right) sawtooth wetting line composed of vees (i.e. vvv shape) from which bubbles are entrained.
This work forms part of a large-scale international project Dynamic Wetting & Interfacial Transitions in Three Dimensions: Theory vs Experiment, funded by the EPSRC (UK) and CBET (US). The Research Fellow will have the opportunity to interact with world-leading experimental analysis being conducted on coating flows in Satish Kumar’s group in Minnesota and drop dynamics in Alfonso Castrejón-Pita’s team at Oxford as well as with industrial partners that include multi-national 3M, famous for Post-it and Scotchguard, and TriJet, a leading consultancy firm on emerging drop-based technologies.
This position is to work with Dr James Sprittles (Maths) and Professor Duncan Lockerby (Engineering) at the University of Warwick, and you will be based in the Mathematics Institute, which in REF2014 was placed first in the UK for Research Environment with 92% of the research rated world leading or internationally excellent. You will also be integrated into an ever-expanding group of researchers (including 7 postdoctoral fellows) at Warwick (see http://www.micronanoflows.ac.uk/) and will be expected to participate in lively weekly group meetings.
Images of 3D instability generation are obtained from:
(a) Reyssat E & Quéré D (2006), Europhys. Lett., 73:236-242 (b) Thoroddsen S et al (2012), J. Fluid. Mech., 708:469-479 (c) Pack M et al (2018), Langmuir, 34:4962-4969
James Sprittles 
The Micro & Nano Flows Group at the University of Warwick are seeking an outstanding Postdoctoral Research Fellow to develop new computational modelling tools that will enable a step change in our understanding of 3D interfacial instabilities (see header image), for which no theory currently exists, that plague a range of manufacturing processes.
Click here to apply! Closing date is 24th July 2019.
This international and interdisciplinary project will focus on understanding what governs the maximum speed at which liquids spread across (or ‘wet’) solid surfaces after which a 3D sawtooth wetting line appears (see image below). The result of exceeding this threshold is routinely observed, causing raindrops to splash upon impact with a windscreen, and it is the bottleneck to achieving faster liquid-applied coatings (a~$100 billion industry), e.g. for the manufacture of solar cells. This project will explore this phenomenon by building upon recent advances in computational modelling and exploiting a synergy with cutting-edge experimental analysis performed by our partners.
a transition from 2D flow (left) to a 3D (right) sawtooth wetting line
composed of vees (i.e. vvv shape) from which bubbles are entrained.
This work forms part of a large-scale international project Dynamic Wetting & Interfacial Transitions in Three Dimensions: Theory vs Experiment, funded by the EPSRC (UK) and CBET (US). The Research Fellow will have the opportunity to interact with world-leading experimental analysis being conducted on coating flows in Satish Kumar’s group in Minnesota and drop dynamics in Alfonso Castrejón-Pita’s team at Oxford as well as with industrial partners that include multi-national 3M, famous for Post-it and Scotchguard, and TriJet, a leading consultancy firm on emerging drop-based technologies.
This position is to work with Dr James Sprittles (Maths) and Professor Duncan Lockerby (Engineering) at the University of Warwick, and you will be based in the Mathematics Institute, which in REF2014 was placed first in the UK for Research Environment with 92% of the research rated world leading or internationally excellent. You will also be integrated into an ever-expanding group of researchers (including 7 postdoctoral fellows) at Warwick (see http://www.micronanoflows.ac.uk/) and will be expected to participate in lively weekly group meetings.
Images of 3D instability generation are obtained from:
(a) Reyssat E & Quéré D (2006), Europhys. Lett., 73:236-242
(b) Thoroddsen S et al (2012), J. Fluid. Mech., 708:469-479
(c) Pack M et al (2018), Langmuir, 34:4962-4969
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