Date of Award
January 2016
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Chemical Engineering
First Advisor
Osman A Basaran
Committee Member 1
Doraiswami Ramkrishna
Committee Member 2
Michael T Harris
Committee Member 3
Anil K Bajaj
Abstract
Free surface flows where the shape of the interface separating two or more phases or liquids are unknown apriori, are commonplace in industrial applications and nature. Distribution of drop sizes, coalescence rate of drops, and the behavior of thin liquid films are crucial to understanding and enhancing industrial practices such as ink-jet printing, spraying, separations of chemicals, and coating flows. When a contiguous mass of liquid such as a drop, filament or a film undergoes breakup to give rise to multiple masses, the topological transition is accompanied with a finite-time singularity. Such singularity also arises when two or more masses of liquid merge into each other or coalesce. Thus the dynamics close to singularity determines the fate of about-to-form drops or films and applications they are involved in, and therefore needs to be analyzed precisely. The primary goal of this thesis is to resolve and analyze the dynamics close to singularity when free surface flows experience a topological transition, using a combination of theory, experiments, and numerical simulations.
Recommended Citation
Thete, Sumeet Suresh, "Singularities in Free Surface Flows" (2016). Open Access Dissertations. 1398.
https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations/1398