MSE Seminar: Corey O'Hern (Yale)

Description

Flow and clogging of capillary droplets

Capillary droplets form due to surface tension when two immiscible fluids are mixed. We describe the motion of gravity-driven capillary droplets flowing through narrow constrictions and obstacle arrays in both simulations and experiments. Our new capillary deformable particle model recapitulates the shape and velocity of single oil droplets in water as they pass through narrow constrictions in microfluidic chambers. Using this experimentally validated model, we describe flows and clogging of single and multiple capillary droplets in narrow channels and obstacle arrays. The results from these studies are important for developing a predictive understanding of capillary droplet flows through complex and confined geometries.
 

Bio:
Corey O’Hern joined the faculty of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Yale with joint appointments in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Applied Physics, Physics, and Graduate Program in Computational Biology & Bioinformatics (CBB) in July 2002 after postdoctoral fellowships in physics at the University of Chicago and the University of California, Los Angeles. His research group tackles a broad range of fundamental questions in soft matter andother materials systems using a combination of theoretical and computational techniques. His research is currently funded by the National Science Foundation‚ Army Research Office, and National Institutes of Health. He has authored more than 160 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals and given more than 250 seminars, colloquia, and presentations at universities and scientific meetings in the US and abroad. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and has served in a number of leadership positions in the US soft matter research community, including the Chair of the Topical Group on Statistical and Nonlinear Physics of the American Physical Society.