Berkeley Fluids Seminar
University of California, Berkeley
Bring your lunch and enjoy learning about fluids!
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
3110 Etcheverry Hall, 12:00-13:00
Professor Shaofan Li (Civil Engineering, UC Berkeley)
A Multiscale Moving Contact Line Theory:
Simulation of droplet spreading and cell durotaxi
Abstract: In this talk, we present a novel multiscale moving contact line (MMCL) theory, which offers a powerful numerical simulation method for modeling and analysis of dynamic wetting, liquid droplet spreading on solid substrates, and various capillary motion phenomena. In the proposed multiscale moving contact line theory, we couple molecular scale adhesive interaction i.e. the van der Waals type interaction force and the macroscale fluid mechanics to solve droplet motions on solid substrates. In specific, we combine a coarse-grained adhesive contact model with a modified GurtinMurdoch surface hydroelasto-dynamics theory and the Navier-Stokes equation in the bulk fluids to formulate the multiscale moving contact line hydrodynamics theory in order to simulate a broader class of colloidal and soft matter physics phenomena, and related chemomechanical problems, such as cell motility, water spider walking, colloid suspension, and gas bubble in water, etc.
The advantage of adopting the coarse grain adhesive contact model in the moving
contact line theory is that it can levitate and separate the liquid droplet with the solid substrate, so that the proposed multiscale moving contact line theory avoids imposing the non-slip condition, and then it removes the subsequent shear stress singularity problem, which allows the surface energy difference and surface stress propelling droplet spreading naturally.
By employing the proposed method, we have successfully simulated droplet spreading over various elastic substrates and cell durotaxi over the substrates with non-uniform elastic stiffness. The obtained numerical simulation results compare well with the experimental and molecular dynamics results reported in the literature.
Acknowledgments
Prof. Graham Fleming (Vice Chancellor for Research, UC Berkeley)
Prof. Eliot Quataert on behalf of The Theoretical Astrophysics Center and the Astronomy Department (UC Berkeley)
Prof. Philip S. Marcus on behalf of the Mechanical Engineering Department (UC Berkeley)
Prof. Michael Manga (Earth and Planetary Science, UC Berkeley)
Prof. Evan Variano (Civil and Environmental Engineering, UC Berkeley)