
NSF Org: |
CBET Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems |
Recipient: |
|
Initial Amendment Date: | February 10, 2012 |
Latest Amendment Date: | June 14, 2017 |
Award Number: | 1150389 |
Award Instrument: | Continuing Grant |
Program Manager: |
Ron Joslin
rjoslin@nsf.gov (703)292-7030 CBET Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems ENG Directorate for Engineering |
Start Date: | June 1, 2012 |
End Date: | May 31, 2018 (Estimated) |
Total Intended Award Amount: | $400,000.00 |
Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $441,649.00 |
Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2013 = $69,150.00 FY 2014 = $70,745.00 FY 2015 = $72,389.00 FY 2016 = $71,811.00 FY 2017 = $39,996.00 |
History of Investigator: |
|
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
W5510 FRANKS MELVILLE MEMORIAL LIBRARY STONY BROOK NY US 11794-0001 (631)632-9949 |
Sponsor Congressional District: |
|
Primary Place of Performance: |
WEST 5510 FRK MEL LIB STONY BROOK NY US 11794-3366 |
Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
|
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
|
Parent UEI: |
|
NSF Program(s): | FD-Fluid Dynamics |
Primary Program Source: |
01001314DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001415DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001516DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001617DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001718DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
Program Reference Code(s): |
|
Program Element Code(s): |
|
Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.041 |
ABSTRACT
1150389
Cubaud
High-viscosity fluids represent a broad class of materials that are essential to many aspects of energy technologies and life. We know from everyday observation that viscous fluids are sticky and thick. They tend to attach to surfaces and they form filamentous structures when manipulated. Their large viscosity coefficient makes them slow and difficult to displace, and blending them with other materials requires a long time. Today, the limited supplies of fossil energy resources require the development of innovative methods for finely handling viscous materials and gaseous byproducts over multiple length scales. This project combines educational and research activities designed to expand the scientific foundations for new and improved manipulations of highly viscous fluids at the small scale. Novel strategies will be deployed to rapidly mix and enrich thick materials using high-pressure microfluidic devices. Two research thrusts are proposed. The first involves blending low- and high-viscosity miscible fluids in continuous flow configurations. The formation of viscous stratifications and the stability of lubricated threads against diffusion, inertia, and viscous buckling phenomena will be experimentally and numerically modeled in confined microgeometries. The second investigation focuses on microscale dissolution processes of carbon dioxide with viscous fluids. Segmented microflows of dissolving gas bubbles will be examined for impregnating viscous substances and unlocking the fundamentals of carbon sequestration in porous-like media. This work will lead to the development of predictive models and improve our understanding and practical use of liquid/liquid and liquid/gas multiphase flows in the presence of diffusive interfaces at the small scale.
Intellectual merit: This project will provide a comprehensive and unifying picture of the flow behavior of viscous fluids with miscible lubricants. A series of carefully designed experiments, theoretical arguments, and numerical modeling will generate a reliable and systematic knowledge concerning the emerging properties of high-viscosity microflows and viscous buckling instabilities. Carbonated multiphase flows will be characterized at the pore level over a wide range of fluid properties and operating parameters. This work will expand the frontier of understanding in fluid dynamics and open up a new era of fluid processing capabilities.
Broader impacts: This program will offer substantial educational opportunities for a diversity of students, including underrepresented, high school, undergraduate, and graduate students. The PI will dedicate his efforts to educate and train students to cutting edge research in fluid science. Results developed during this project will be incorporated into the PI's outreach and teaching activities at every level. This work will help improve continuous flow-based mixing apparatuses for high-viscosity fluids and offer new expertise for the microflow management of petrochemical products and viscous biomaterials, the recycling of used oils, and the capture of carbon-based byproducts.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
Note:
When clicking on a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number, you will be taken to an external
site maintained by the publisher. Some full text articles may not yet be available without a
charge during the embargo (administrative interval).
Some links on this page may take you to non-federal websites. Their policies may differ from
this site.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
This program has provided fundamental advances in our understanding of the flow behavior of highly viscous fluids at the small scale. High-viscosity fluids represent a broad class of materials that are essential to many aspects of life and human activity. The limited ability to precisely manipulate thick substances, however, has prevented the development of innovative methods for the microflow management of petrochemical products and viscous biomaterials, as well as the recycling of used oils and multiphase compounds using miniaturized systems.This project addressed this shortcoming with an integrated suite of educational and research activities designed to expand the scientific foundations for new and improved manipulations of highly viscous fluids. Two research thrusts were examined to develop a set of novel techniques for the blending of low- and high-viscosity fluids using continuous injections. The first involved the mixing of separated fluids using hydrodynamics instabilities in microchannels and the second focused on microscale dissolution of dispersed bubbles to better manipulate impregnation processes of thick fluids with carbon dioxide in porous media.
As viscous fluids are known to attach to surfaces and form filamentous structures, a useful technique for manipulating thick materials is the use of thin, low-viscosity fluids to form well-controlled stratifications and lubricated threads in small conduits. During the course of this work, the PI and his group uncovered and characterized a range of novel small-scale destabilization processes of viscous layered flows and filaments that facilitate the mixing and emulsification of thick fluids. In particular, the combined roles of fluid properties, flow parameters, and confining geometries were clarified for the formation of stable and unstable flow patterns, including various breaking modes of interfacial waves as well as diffusive and buckling instabilities of slender viscous structures. New predictive capabilities were developed for the mixing and separation of widely disparate fluids in microsystems.
Another fundamental aspect of this work consisted in the characterization of gas dissolution phenomena with thick fluids to better control carbonated microflows. Dissolving bubbles flowing with high-viscosity fluids adopt complex behaviors depending on parameters such as individual diffusion rate and collective bubble arrangements. The PI and his group took advantage of microfluidic platforms to examine enhanced gas transfer in a variety of solvents and better delineate dissolving microflows with highly-viscous fluids. Basic advances in separated and dispersed microflows were also complemented with the characterization of the spreading and coalescence dynamics of droplets immersed in viscous fluids to elucidate the combined role of inner and outer viscosities on spontaneous capillary phenomena.
This project provided a well-structured research environment for the training of three doctoral students and a variety of undergraduate students of diverse backgrounds. The development of a unifying framework for the microscale manipulation of thick fluids lead to numerous publications and the creation of teaching resources for illustrating some of the basic properties of viscous flows, capillary phenomena, and hydrodynamic instabilities. Explanatory videos designed for scientific dissemination are available on public-sharing websites for outreach to the public. This project provided significant improvement in fundamental and practical knowledge for the control of high-viscosity fluids. The possibility to mix, separate, and enrich viscous matter in miniaturized systems lays the scientific foundations of future fluid processing technology and this work is expected to make a long-term impact on society given the widespread of viscous materials in nature and in the industry.
Last Modified: 09/26/2018
Modified by: Thomas Cubaud
Please report errors in award information by writing to: awardsearch@nsf.gov.