Project Description

Controlling the flow of concentrated particle suspensions is crucial in a plethora of applications such as the creation of biomass slurries for renewable fuels, metal pastes in solar cells, thermal interface materials, solid oxide fuel cells, and additive manufacturing/3D printing. These concentrated suspensions are made up of spheres or particles with anisotropic shapes (rods, fibers, platelets) and often operate close to the jamming fraction. Developing models and measurement tools to understand and predict the flow behavior of concentrated particle suspensions is crucial to optimize many industrial processes. This project uses a combination of rheological experiments and computational models to investigate the fundamental flow behavior of concentrated suspensions. The goal is to quantify rheological properties of the suspension including yield stress, normal stresses, and relative viscosity of the concentrated suspension under different conditions. 

Start Date

Summer or Fall 2024

Postdoc Qualifications

The ideal candidate for this position will have a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Chemical Engineering or a related field, and research experience with one or more of the following: rheometry, fluid dynamics, complex fluids, modeling. Must demonstrate excellent communication skills in the form of published papers and conference presentations

Co-Advisors

Arezoo Ardekani
Professor, School of Mechanical Engineering
ardekani@purdue.edu
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~ardekani/

Kendra Erk
Associate Professor, School of Materials Engineering
erk@purdue.edu
https://soft-material-mechanics.squarespace.com/home/

Short Bibliography

R.D. Corder, Y.-J. Chen, P. Pibulchinda, J.P. Youngblood, A.M. Ardekani, and K.A. Erk, “Rheology of 3D printable ceramic suspensions: effects of non-adsorbing polymer on discontinuous shear thickening,” Soft Matter, 19, 882-891 (2023) https://doi.org/10.1039/D2SM01396G

M. Khan, R.V. More, A.A. Banaei, L. Brandt, A.M. Ardekani, “Rheology of a concentrated suspension of fibers with load dependent friction coefficient”, Physical Review Fluids 8 (4), 044301 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.8.044301

M. Khan, R.V. More, A.M. Ardekani, “A constitutive model for viscosity of dense fiber suspension,” Physics of Fluids 35 (1), 013337, (2023). https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0057072

M. Boodaghidizaji, M. Khan, A.M. Ardekani, “Multi-fidelity modeling to predict the rheological properties of a suspension of fibers using neural networks and Gaussian processes,” Physics of Fluids 34 (5), 053101, (2022). https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0087449