May 2023: We are happy to welcome two French visiting MS students: Raphael Bouguemari from ENS Paris-Saclay, who will work on the rheology of complex suspensions, and Remi Thomas from ENS Lyon, who will work on the transport of particles in millifluidic channels. Welcome!
April 2023: Alban gave the Center for Environmental and Applied Fluid Mechanics seminar at Johns Hopkins University. It was a great visit (despite the rain) and nice to see all the projects carried out there! Thanks for the invitation.
April 2023: Our Physics Today's paper presenting an overview of our current knowledge on clogging has been highlighted by FYFD: The Physics of Clogging !
April 2023: Alban gave a colloquium in the Department of Physics at Georgetown University, presenting our work on clogging. Thanks for the invitation and the interactions! (and the bonus of having lunch at the French Embassy!)
March 2023: Our work on the viscoelastic regime in the thinning of polymer solutions has been featured in the Soft Matter Editorial Board Highlights of 2022 themed collection! Congratulation Sreeram and Virgile for this great study! See also the News on the UCSB ME website: Highlighting UCSB Soft Matter.
March 2023: Alban gave a seminar in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at George Washington University. It was a pleasure to visit and to have many stimulating discussions and potential future collaborations!
March 2023: Our video entry to the 2023 Gallery of Soft Matter is available here. In this video, we show with Ben McMillan and Nathalie Vriend, that photoelastic disks can be used to measure the force between particles when clogging occurs. And this video won the 2023 Gallery of Soft Matter Award! See the news on the UCSB ME website here, and corresponding article about the winners in Physics here and in Ars Technica here.
February 2023: Our poster entries to the 2022 Gallery of Fluid Motion have been successfully highlighted by FYFD: Beneath the Cavity and Frozen in Ice.
February 2023: Well-deserved pizza lunch after a long overdue lab cleaning!
February 2023: Whether it’s pipes, highways, or arteries that are clogged, stopping the flow is always inconvenient and sometimes dangerous. Our outreach article on clogging has been published in Physics Today! Check it our here : Clogging: The self-sabotage of suspensions
In addition, clogging has been featured on the cover of the issue here.
January 2023: Welcome to Joanne Steiner in the group! Joanne is a visiting PhD student from FAST Laboratory (University of Paris-Saclay/CNRS, France), with whom we work on the erosion of granular beds by flapping foils. Here, she will look at the erosion of cohesive granular materials. Welcome, Joanne!
December 2022: Our video on the generation of impulse waves by a translating piston has been featured in FYFD: Classifying Waves. Congratulations to Wladimir for the nice visuals!
December 2022: The NSF has highlighted our work on the rheology of mudflow: Physics of disaster: How mudslides move. You can check out their article here.
November 2022: We were at the APS DFD meeting. Deok-Hoon, Sreeram, and Ram presented their ongoing work. It was great to catch up with many friends and colleagues in Indiannapolis! Looking forward to the next DFD Meeting in Washington DC.
November 2022: Alban's presentation for the APS DFD 2022 meeting, "And yet it clogs: bridging of suspensions in constricted channels, has been featured in the press by the APS: Scientists to tackle ‘world’s grand challenges’ at American Physical Society meeting.
November 2022: Kaleidoscope of impulse waves. We highlight in this video here the broad range of wave regimes that are generated by a translating piston. Our visualizations show that both the translating distance and the speed of the piston control the regime of the waves observed.
October 2022: The KITP program Multiphase Flows in Geophysics and the Environment is starting next door. Looking forward to interacting with many visitors over the next two months and discuss the future directions of the field. Thanks to the organizers, Elisabeth Guazzelli, Michael Manga, Eckart Meiburg, and Raymond Shaw.
October 2022: Our collaborative work with Doug Jerolmack, Tom Dunne, Eckart Meiburg and others has been puslished in PNAS. We show that the complex rheology of natural debris flow materials can be tamed through the framework of jamming. Check out the article here.
October 2022: We are happy to welcome Ben McMillan, a visiting PhD student from the University of Cambridge (UK) and advised by Nathalie Vriend. Excited to start a new collaboration on clogging of photoelastic disks. Welcome Ben!
October 2022: Pushing a liquid out of a tube leaves behind a thin film on the capillary walls. Could this be used for coating applications with suspensions? Deok-Hoon (and others) address this question in our last paper published in Soft Matter here
September 2022: Plop! What is the pinch-off dynamics of an air bubble in a viscoelastic fluid? The last study of Sreeram, Sumukh, and Virgile characterizes the very last instant before the break-up and the associated singularity in Journal of non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics. See the paper here.
September 2022: We had a great time at the EFMC14 in Athens! Nathan presented his recent paper on clogging in millichannel and Virgile his work on the atomization of ligaments of suspension. Bonus: the reception was amazing! Thanks to the organizers
September 2022: Alban was an invited researcher at FAST Laboratory in Orsay (France) to collaborate with colleagues. He was also able to give a seminar there and at SIMM/ESPCI in Paris. Bonus: the footage of the Gallery of Fluid Motion video for this year were recorded!
September 2022: How to predict the amplitude of a tsunami wave generated by a granular collapse? The model developed by Wladimir to predict the wave induced by a landslide entering into water is now online in Physical Review Fluids here ! His paper was selected as an Editor's choice and also had a synopsis in Physics here. In addition, Le Monde also wrote an article about this work here. Congrats Wladimir!
August 2022: A typical strategy to prevent clogging is to dilute a suspension. But how dilute is enough? A new study from Nathan and Sacha tackles this question in Soft Matter. Check out the article here
July 2022: Ram's study on the erosion of cohesive grains by an impinging turbulent jet has been published in Physical Review Fluids ! See the article here. You can also check the article featuring Ram's work in The Current : When particles moves, and highlighted in FYFD
June 2022: Two high-school students are joining the lab through the UCSB Research Mentorship Program (RMP): Kate Jang, who will work with Sreeram on the settling of particles with biocohesion and Steven Amanat, who will work with Ram on the cleaning of dust on substrates. Welcome!
June 2022: Deok-Hoon's poster for the Gallery of Fluid Motion at the APS DFD 2021 was just highlighted in FYFD : Particle-Filled Coatings
May 2022: Alban gave the Fluid Mechanics Seminar at UC Stanford, presenting our work studying capillary flows of suspensions. Thank you all for the stimulating interactions!
May 2022: Brillant PhD defense by (now Dr.) Brian Dincau! Brian is the first student of our group graduating at UCSB (co-advised with Emilie Dressaire), and was an amazing first student to have here!
April/May 2022: We are excited to host two visiting MS students this spring/summer: Jules Tampier (coming from ENS Lyon and IPGP, France), who will work on the erosion by drop impact, and Sebastien Kuchly (from ESPCI, Paris), who is going to work on clogging in millifluidic channels. Welcome to both of them in the group!
April 2022: Congrats to Sreeram and Virgile for their new study focusing on the transition between the Newtonian and viscoelastic regime during the formation of droplets of polymer solutions : see the paper published in Soft Matter here
April 2022: Two visiting PhD students are joining the group: Wladimir Sarlin (FAST, University of Paris-Saclay, France) who will investigate the flow of cohesive granular materials, and Simon Brient (IJLRDA, Sorbonne University, France) who will work on drop impact in thin liquid films.
April 2022: Virgile's article “The onset of heterogeneity in the pinch-off of suspension drops” has just been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. For the non-specialists, UCSB’s Harrison Tasoff just wrote a paper on the subject here.
January 2022: Can pulsation added in a microfluidic device delays the clogging of the constriction by a colloidal suspension? Brian's study providing some first answer was published in Soft Matter. In addition, our experiments were highlighted by Elveflow with a technical note. Congrats Brian!
November 2021: The video submitted by Virgile on the fragmentation of viscous compound filaments won the the Milton Van Dyke award from the Gallery of Fluid Motion of the APS. See also the coverage in the APS popularization magazine, Physics: "Complex Droplets and Interacting Bubbles Receive Video Prize".
November 2021: The group was present at the APS DFD 2021 in Phoenix AZ. Glad to resume in-person conferences and congrats to all for amazing presentations! Looking forward to the next DFD meeting in November 2022.
October 2021: In-person seminars are finally back after 1.5 years of remote talk! Alban presented the work done in our group on capillary for of suspensions at USC, and at UC Riverside. Glad to have been able to talk in-person with friends and for many stimulating discussions!
October 2021: Sreeram's entry for the ME Grad Slam on the science of complex fluids has won the first place! Congrats Sreeram!
September 2021: Two new students just joined the group! Nathan Vani is a student from ENS Paris-Saclay and will spend the academic year at UCSB to work on the flow and clogging of particles in confined systems. Ram Sharma is an incoming PhD student coming from the East Coast (Clark University). Welcome to both of you!
July 2021: Our work on wave generated by granular collapse has been features by UCSB: The Science of Tsunamis, and by Journal of Fluid Mechanics: Making Waves in the Lab
June 2021: Wladimir's experiments describing the possible wave regimes generated by the collapse of a granular column into water are on the cover of Journal of Fluid Mechanics ! The corresponding paper is available here
June 2021: Thrilled to see our new study published in Physical Review Fluids: Pinch-off of viscoelastic particulate suspensions. In this study, we described the stages of drop detachment for a suspension of particles in a dilute polymer solution.
June 2021: How do particles modify the formation and pinch-off of droplets and what is the role of the polydispersity of the suspension? Virgile and Sreeram tackled these questions in our new study published in Soft Matter: Droplet detachment and pinch-off of bidisperse particulate suspensions
April 2021: Alban gave a Fluid seminar at Brown University, presenting our lab's work on capillary flows of complex fluids. Although it was a virtual even, it was a pleasure to "remotely visit" and to have so many stimulating discussions.
April 2021: How does a granular jet crosses an air/liquid interface and enters in water? Our study in collaboration with Pierre Jop and Guillaume Saingier is now online in Journal of Fluid Mechanics: Falling jet of dry granular material in water
April 2021: Our group was (remotely) present at the 14th Southern California Flow Physics Symposium to present our studies on the pinch-off of viscoelastic suspensions (Vigile), the formation of droplet of bidisperse suspensions (Sreeram), the erosion of a cohesive granular bed by a turbulent jet (Jerry) and the deposition of particles in a capillary tube (Deok-Hoon).
February 2021: Alban gave an invited talk at Hong Kong University do dicuss our recent finding on capillary micromanipulation of particles.
December 2020: Alban has presented our research to characterize and model capillary flows of suspension at the Southern California Fluid Dynamics Seminar Series
December 2020: Alban gave an invited seminar on our work studying the entry of grains into water at the Cornell Fluid Seminar series. It was a pleasure to interact with so many researchers doing exciting work in fluid dynamics!
November 2020: How to describe the fluid mechanics underlying the mixing of grains and liquid? Alban gave an invited live presentation on our first insights on this topic during the mini-symposium "Kitchen Flows" at the APS DFD 2020.
November 2020: Deok-Hoon, Hadis, Mingze, Guillaume amd Sivar will (remotely) present their work at the APS DFD 2020 meeting :
- Particle deposition in a capillary tube during the translation of a suspension slug (Deok-Hoon)
- Drop impact on an immersed granular bed (Hadis)
- Erosion of a cohesive granular material by an impinging turbulent jet (Mingze)
- Drag force exerted on a confined porous aggregate (Guillaume)
- Erosion of a granular bed by an oscillating foil (Sivar)
November 2020: How do dry granular media enter into a liquid? Our contribution to characterizing the resulting wave generated by a granular collapse into water is now available in Journal of Fluid Mechanics: Experimental investigation of tsunami waves generated by granular collapse into water
November 2020: Withdrawing a liquid from a tube leaves a thin layer of liquid on the wall. What happens when particles or contaminants are dispersed in the liquid? We tackled this question in our paper just published in Physical Review Fluids: Deposition of a particle-laden film on the inner wall of a tube
September 2020: We welcome a new postdoctoral researcher in our group! Virgile will tackle different projects at the intersection of fluid mechanics and soft matter. Many exciting results to come!
May 2020: Despite the current Covid situation, we are thrilled to have two visiting students, Anezka Kvasnickova (ESPCI, France) and Guillaume Grosjean (Polytech' Montpellier, France) joining the group for three months. They will work remotely on numerical projects involving multiphase flow in porous media. Welcome!
May 2020: Our new study in Journal of Fluid Mechanics is out! We characterize how the coating of fibers by a suspension is controlled by the film properties: Entrainment of particles during the withdrawal of a fibre from a dilute suspension. A great collaboration with amazing scientists !
April 2020: When a particle-laden drop impacts a surface, the spreading and fragmentation of the resulting thin liquid film is modified by the presence of the particles as shown in our new study published in Physical Review Fluids: Spreading and fragmentation of particle-laden liquid sheets.
April 2020: Alban is honored to be a recipient of the NSF CAREER award from the Particulate and Multiphase Processes program. The National Science Foundation CAREER awards aim to support junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through research and education, and the integration of these endeavors in the context of their organizations' missions. This award will support our work investigating how capillary effects and interfaces modify the flow and dynamics of suspensions. It will also provide educational opportunities for high school, undergraduate, and graduate students, in particular from under-represented groups. See also the article in the Current.
January 2020: Our work on harnessing capillary effects to control the filtration and the sorting of particles in thin films was featured in an article for the UCSB Engineering webpage.
November 2019: Our group will be at the APS DFD meeting in Seattle presenting some of our projects on capillary sorting of particles, dip coating of suspensions and flow of cohesive grains.
September 2019: Brian received the Department of Mechanical Engineering Best TA Award this year. Congratulations on this well-deserved award!
April 2019: We co-organized the "13th Southern California Flow Physics Symposium" ( SoCal Fluids XIII) at UC Santa Barbara. Thank you to all the participants who exchanged idea in all areas of fluid dynamics.
February 2019: Alban gave a seminar in the at the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering department at UCSD discussing our recent progresses on unraveling the blending of liquid and grains. Thank you for a great visit and many stimulating discussions!
December 2018: Our work on dip coating of suspensions has been accepted for publication in Soft Matter. In this paper, we report the existence of three regimes of dip coating in non-Brownian suspensions: pure liquid, heterogeneous coating and homogeneous suspension films. We provide the domain of existence of these different regimes.
November 2018: We attended the APS DFD Meeting in Atlanta and presented our work on the entry of granular material into water, clogging in microchannels, and multiple bubbling. We also submitted the following entries to the Gallery of Fluid Motion.
October 2018: Physical Review Fluids just published online our article on Growth of clogs in parallel microchannels. Here we consider suspensions flowing in microchannels when particles can get trapped and form clogs. We have developed a new model that predicts the clogging dynamics and flow rate evolution in simple porous media. The results are relevant to describe the aging of water filters and the influence of proppants on flow through rocks.
