Search

How liquid water in atmospheric clouds distributes over droplets of different sizes is important for the initiation of rainfall, and for the optical properties of the atmosphere. Droplet-number densities and droplet-size distributions change rapidly at turbulent cloud edges, where mixing of cloudy and dry air causes cloud dilution and droplet evaporation. The resulting droplet configurations are determined by how individual micrometer-sized droplets are exposed to dry air, by a turbulent flow whose length scales range from millimeters to hundreds of meters. A first part of this thesis is on mixing and evaporation at turbulent cloud edges. It is explained how several results from numerical simulations can be understood in a simple way by simplifying and non-dimensionalizing a widely used model. The simple understanding makes it possible to interpret empirical data, and to analyze the multiscale nature of mixing and evaporation in clouds. Two statistical models for mixing and evaporation are presented. The first reproduces the broadening of the droplet-size distribution observed in direct numerical simulations (DNS), but has an oversimplified supersaturation dynamics. This problem is partially resolved in the second model, which under some conditions reproduces the supersaturations of droplets in DNS quantitatively. A second part of the thesis is on the angular dynamics of small particles in flow. How particles spin and tumble is important for many different phenomena, including the intrinsic viscosity of particle suspensions, the settling of ice crystals in clouds, and the motion of plankton. It is predicted that particles that possess a rotation symmetry and a reflection symmetry in a plane that contains the axis of rotation symmetry spin and tumble like spheroids in Stokes flow. This prediction is verified in an experiment where the angular dynamics of triangular particles in a simple shear flow is observed. The angular dynamics of rotation-symmetric particles without the above-mentioned reflection symmetry is analyzed.

International audience; An exhaustive description of the dynamics under shear flow of a large number of red blood cells in dilute regime is proposed, which highlights and takes into account the dispersion in cell properties within a given blood sample. Physiological suspending fluid viscosity is considered, a configuration surprisingly seldom considered in experimental studies, as well as a more viscous fluid that is a reference in the literature. Stable and unstable flipping motions well described by Jeffery orbits or modified Jeffery orbits are identified, as well as transitions to and from tank-treading motion in the more viscous suspending fluid case. Hysteresis loops upon shear rate increase or decrease are highlighted for the transitions between unstable and stable orbits as well as for the transition between flipping and tank-treading. We identify which of the characteristic parameters of motion and of the transition thresholds depend on flow stress only or also on suspending fluid viscosity.

Fiber networks are ubiquitous and are seen in both industrial materials (paper and nonwovens) and biological materials (plant cells and animal tissues). Nature intricately manipulates these network structures by varying their density, aggregation, and fiber orientation to create a variety of functionalities. In conventional papermaking, fibrous materials are dispersed in water to form a sheet of a highly oriented two-dimensional (2D) network. In such a structure, the in-plane mechanical and transport properties are very different from those in the out-of-plane direction. A three-dimensional (3D) network, however, may offer unique properties not seen in conventional paper products. Foam, i.e., a dispersed system of gas and liquid, is widely used as the suspending medium in different industries. Recently, foam forming was studied extensively to develop the understanding of foam-fiber interactions in order to find potential applications of this technology in papermaking. In this thesis, a method for producing low-density, 3D fiber networks by utilizing foam forming is investigated and the structures and mechanical properties of such networks are studied. Micro-computed tomography is used to capture the 3D structure of the network and subsequently to reproduce artificial networks. The finite element method is utilized to model the compression behavior of both the reproduced physical network and the artificial networks in order to understand how the geometry and constitutive elements of the foam-formed network affect its bulk mechanical properties. Additionally, a method was studied in order to quantify the orientation behavior of particles in a laminar Newtonian flow based on the key parameters of the flow which control the orientation. The resulting foam-formed structures were extremely bulky. Yet despite this high bulk, the fiber networks retained good structural integrity. The compression behavior in the thickness direction was characterized by extreme compressibility and high strain recovery after compression. The results from the modeling showed that the finite-deformation mechanical response of the fiber network in compression was satisfactorily captured by the simulation. However, the artificial network shows higher stiffness than the simulated physical network and the experiment. This discrepancy in stiffness was attributed to macroscopic structural non-uniformities in the physical network, which result in increased local compliance. It was also found that the friction between the fibers, as well as the fiber curvature, had a negligible impact on the compression response of the fiber network, while defects (in the form of kinks) had an effect on the response in the last stages of compression. The study of the orientation behavior of particles at different flow velocities, particle sizes, and channel geometries suggests that it might be possible to utilize the flow shear rate as a means to quantify the orientation behavior. Vid tidpunkten för disputationen var följande delarbeten opublicerade: delarbete 2 inskickat, delarbete 3 och 4 manuskript.At the time of the doctoral defence the following papers were unpublished: paper 2 submitted, paper 3 and 4 manuscripts.

Particle shape plays an important role in controlling the optical, magnetic, and mechanical properties of nanoparticle suspensions as well as nanocomposites. However, characterizing the size, shape, and the associated polydispersity of nanoparticles is not straightforward. Electron microscopy provides an accurate measurement of the geometric properties, but sample preparation can be laborious, and to obtain statistically relevant data many particles need to be analyzed separately. Moreover, when the particles are suspended in a fluid, it is important to measure their hydrodynamic properties, as they determine aspects such as diffusion and the rheological behavior of suspensions. Methods that evaluate the dynamics of nanoparticles such as light scattering and rheo-optical methods accurately provide these hydrodynamic properties, but do necessitate a sufficient optical response. In the present work, three different methods for characterizing nonspherical gold nanoparticles are critically compared, especially taking into account the complex optical response of these particles. The different methods are evaluated In terms of their versatility to asses size, shape, and polydispersity. Among these, the rheo-optical technique Is show to be the most reliable method to obtain hydrodynamic aspect ratio and polydispersity for nonspherical gold nanoparticles for two reasons. First, the use of the evolution of the orientation angle makes effects of polydispersity less important. Second, the use of an external flow field gives a mathematically more robust relation between particle motion and aspect ratio, especially for particles with relatively small aspect ratios. ispartof: ACS Nano vol:5 issue:6 pages:4935-4944 ispartof: location:United States status: published

Particle suspensions occur in many situations in nature and industry. In this master’s thesis, the motion of a single rigid spheroidal particle immersed in Stokes flow is studied numerically using a boundary integral method and a new specialized quadrature method known as quadrature by expansion (QBX). This method allows the spheroid to be massless or inertial, and placed in any kind of underlying Stokesian flow. A parameter study of the QBX method is presented, together with validation cases for spheroids in linear shear flow and quadratic flow. The QBX method is able to compute the force and torque on the spheroid as well as the resulting rigid body motion with small errors in a short time, typically less than one second per time step on a regular desktop computer. Novel results are presented for the motion of an inertial spheroid in quadratic flow, where in contrast to linear shear flow the shear rate is not constant. It is found that particle inertia induces a translational drift towards regions in the fluid with higher shear rate. Partikelsuspensioner förekommer i många sammanhang i naturen och industrin. I denna masteruppsats studeras rörelsen hos en enstaka stel sfäroidisk partikel i Stokesflöde numeriskt med hjälp av en randintegralmetod och en ny specialiserad kvadraturmetod som kallas quadrature by expansion (QBX). Metoden fungerar för masslösa eller tröga sfäroider, som kan placeras i ett godtyckligt underliggande Stokesflöde. En parameterstudie av QBX-metoden presenteras, tillsammans med valideringsfall för sfäroider i linjärt skjuvflöde och kvadratiskt flöde. QBX-metoden kan beräkna kraften och momentet på sfäroiden samt den resulterande stelkroppsrörelsen med små fel på kort tid, typiskt mindre än en sekund per tidssteg på en vanlig persondator. Nya resultat presenteras för rörelsen hos en trög sfäroid i kvadratiskt flöde, där skjuvningen till skillnad från linjärt skjuvflöde inte är konstant. Det visar sig att partikeltröghet medför en drift i sidled mot områden i fluiden med högre skjuvning.

Particle suspensions occur in many situations in nature and industry. In this master’s thesis, the motion of a single rigid spheroidal particle immersed in Stokes flow is studied numerically using a boundary integral method and a new specialized quadrature method known as quadrature by expansion (QBX). This method allows the spheroid to be massless or inertial, and placed in any kind of underlying Stokesian flow. A parameter study of the QBX method is presented, together with validation cases for spheroids in linear shear flow and quadratic flow. The QBX method is able to compute the force and torque on the spheroid as well as the resulting rigid body motion with small errors in a short time, typically less than one second per time step on a regular desktop computer. Novel results are presented for the motion of an inertial spheroid in quadratic flow, where in contrast to linear shear flow the shear rate is not constant. It is found that particle inertia induces a translational drift towards regions in the fluid with higher shear rate. Partikelsuspensioner förekommer i många sammanhang i naturen och industrin. I denna masteruppsats studeras rörelsen hos en enstaka stel sfäroidisk partikel i Stokesflöde numeriskt med hjälp av en randintegralmetod och en ny specialiserad kvadraturmetod som kallas quadrature by expansion (QBX). Metoden fungerar för masslösa eller tröga sfäroider, som kan placeras i ett godtyckligt underliggande Stokesflöde. En parameterstudie av QBX-metoden presenteras, tillsammans med valideringsfall för sfäroider i linjärt skjuvflöde och kvadratiskt flöde. QBX-metoden kan beräkna kraften och momentet på sfäroiden samt den resulterande stelkroppsrörelsen med små fel på kort tid, typiskt mindre än en sekund per tidssteg på en vanlig persondator. Nya resultat presenteras för rörelsen hos en trög sfäroid i kvadratiskt flöde, där skjuvningen till skillnad från linjärt skjuvflöde inte är konstant. Det visar sig att partikeltröghet medför en drift i sidled mot områden i fluiden med högre skjuvning.

The orientational dynamics of weakly inertial axisymmetric particles in a steady flow is investigated. We derive an asymptotic equation of motion for the unit axial vector along the particle symmetry axis, valid for small Stokes number St, and for any axisymmetric particle in any steady linear viscous flow. This reduced dynamics is analysed in two ways, both pertain to the case of a simple shear flow. In this case inertia induces a coupling between precession and nutation. This coupling affects the dynamics of the particle, breaks the degeneracy of the Jeffery orbits, and creates two limiting periodic orbits. We calculate the leading-order Floquet exponents of the limiting periodic orbits and show analytically that prolate objects tend to a tumbling orbit, while oblate objects tend to a log-rolling orbit, in agreement with previous analytical and numerical results. Second, we analyse the role of the limiting orbits when rotational noise is present. We formulate the Fokker-Planck equation describing the orientational distribution of an axisymmetric particle, valid for small St and general Peclet number Pe. Numerical solutions of the Fokker-Planck equation, obtained by means of expansion in spherical harmonics, show that stationary orientational distributions are close to the inertia-free case when Pe St << 1, whereas they are determined by inertial effects, though small, when Pe >> 1/St >> 1., 20 pages, 5 figures