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.

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