NSF Org:	CBET Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems
Recipient:	WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY, THE
Initial Amendment Date:	August 29, 1997
Latest Amendment Date:	December 18, 2000
Award Number:	9612499
Award Instrument:	Continuing Grant
Program Manager:	C. F. Chen CBET  Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems ENG  Directorate for Engineering
Start Date:	September 1, 1997
End Date:	May 31, 2001 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount:	$245,000.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date:	$245,000.00
Funds Obligated to Date:	FY 1997 = $54,000.00 FY 1998 = $98,000.00 FY 1999 = $93,000.00
History of Investigator:	Bamin Khomami (Principal Investigator) bkhomami@utk.edu Roger Chamberlain (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office:	Washington University 1 BROOKINGS DR SAINT LOUIS MO  US  63130-4862 (314)747-4134
Sponsor Congressional District:	01
Primary Place of Performance:	Washington University 1 BROOKINGS DR SAINT LOUIS MO  US  63130-4862
Primary Place of Performance Congressional District:	01
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI):	L6NFUM28LQM5
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s):	FD-Fluid Dynamics
Primary Program Source:	app-0197  app-0198  app-0199
Program Reference Code(s):	0000, 9146, 9251, MANU, OTHR
Program Element Code(s):	144300
Award Agency Code:	4900
Fund Agency Code:	4900
Assistance Listing Number(s):	47.041

ABSTRACT

This is a grant to address problems related to polymeric and polymer matrix composite materials that have been identified as being key to the security of the U.S. The basic part of most polymer and composite materials manufacturing processes involves flow of polymers in cavities of arbitrary shape with or without reinforcement. Process throughput and product quality are often limited by the onset of flow instabilities. The existence of purely elastic instabilities suggest that all polymer processing operations, however slow they may be, are prone to instabilities. For this reason understanding the influence of fluid elasticity on flow and stability of representative bulk, free surface and interfacial flows is crucial. Fully parallelized, higher-order finite element techniques will be used to study a number of prototype two and three-dimensional free surface and interfacial flows of viscoelastic fluids. Specifically, the work will focus on investigating flow modifications due to fluid elasticity in mixed shearing/elongational flows as well as examining the role of fluid elasticity and non-equilibrium energetic effects on stability of this class of flows. Of particular interest is to identify the mechanism(s) that are responsible for viscoelastic instabilities in mixed kinematic flows which are routinely encountered in processing of polymers and composite materials.

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