The physics and engineering of flowing suspensions

Suspensions of particles in liquid are found throughout nature and industry, for instance slurries, mudslides, chocolate, toothpaste, and ceramics. Understanding their flow properties is crucial to characterising engineering processes and describing the natural world. We are just beginning to unravel the dramatic influence that stress-controlled particle-particle interactions have on the flow behaviour when the liquid is Newtonian and the particles are hard, spherical and roughly monosized [1]. In reality these conditions are rarely met: particles are usually irregular, being elongated and having a broad size distribution, while suspending liquids are often ‘viscoelastic’. A crucial scientific question is: how do the combined microphysics of these particle-level details control the resulting flow behaviour? For many scenarios in the natural world and in industry, answering this question is key to engineering design and natural hazard mitigation. • You will address this question using predominantly computational means, developing expertise in particle-based simulation, high performance computing, and data analysis; • You will become an expert in rheological characterisation of complex fluids; • Building upon codes developed in Edinburgh, you will implement particle-shape models to simulate bulk flow of suspensions of elongated particles. • You will develop post-processing techniques to generate viscosity and microstructural measurements; • Your work will improve our fundamental understanding and guide constitutive model development. • You will gain real-world experience by collaborating with our industrial partners on a contemporary engineering challenge. This computational project is supervised by Dr Chris Ness (School of Engineering, University of Edinburgh) and will involve regular interaction with experimentalists from academia and industry. Interested candidates may contact the supervisor for further information (chris.ness@ed.ac.uk).

Website: https://christopherjness.github.io/ Contact: Dr Christopher John Ness(Chris.Ness@ed.ac.uk)

[1] Ness, Christopher, Ryohei Seto, and Romain Mari. The physics of dense suspensions, Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics 2022, 13:97-117 You can read more about the scientific work of my group here: https://christopherjness.github.io/papers

Minimum entry qualification- an Honours degree at 2:1 or above (or international equivalent) in a relevant science or engineering discipline, possibly supported by an MSc Degree

Further information on English language requirements for EU/Overseas applicants.

Applications are welcomed from self-funded students, or students who are applying for scholarships from the University of Edinburgh or elsewhere as well as self-funded students.

Funding Eligibility - Home applicants only (UK+EU settled/pre-settled)

Funding may be available for this project.

Further information and other funding options.