Study level

PhD

Master of Philosophy

Honours

Vacation research experience scheme

Faculty/Lead unit

Science and Engineering Faculty

School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering

Topic status

We're looking for students to study this topic.

Supervisors

Associate Professor Emilie Sauret
Position
Associate Professor
Division / Faculty
Science and Engineering Faculty

Overview

The miniaturisation of chemical and biological processes for gas sensing, water purification, cell culture and separation, and micro-reactors is an important factor to reduce costs while increasing performance and efficiency. Miniaturisation requires microfluidic tools for the precise manipulation of complex fluids at the microscale. Microfluidics offers several advantages such as speed, precision and control of those physical processes.

However, the lack of fundamental understanding of the microscopic flow mechanisms, in particular the behaviour of non-ideal fluid mixtures, is a critical aspect underpinning the development of cutting-edge microfluidic technologies.

Furthermore, the development of new microfluidic technologies is hampered by:

  • experimental costs
  • limitations of current computational approaches that are unable to capture the microscopic flow details that are critical for its macroscale accuracy
  • the lack of proper design methodologies.

This project aims to address the lack of physical fluid flow knowledge at the microscale and computational challenges that curtail the practical design and optimisation of microfluidic technologies.

Research activities

In this research project you will:

  • read recent research relevant to the computational modelling of complex fluid flows at the microscale.
  • develop and apply models and codes to predict microscopic flows in a fast and accurate manner
  • validate your model against benchmark cases and report your findings.

Outcomes

An improved understanding of how to model complex fluid flows at the microscale.

Skills and experience

This project can be tailored to your interests and study level.

You'll need to have an interest in computational modelling of fluid flows.

Some background in numerical methods, scientific programming and/or fluid dynamics is preferable.

Scholarships

You may be able to apply for a research scholarship in our annual scholarship round.

Annual scholarship round

Keywords

Contact

Contact the supervisor for more information.