February 10, 2015, Tuesday - Seminar Series at the SAFL

Time: 3:30pm - 5:00pm

Location: St. Anthony Falls Laboratory (SAFL), 2 3rd Avenue SE

The Minneapolis Parks Foundation Executive Director, Tom Evers, will kick off the 2015 weekly seminar series at the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory (also known as the Stream Lab).

Tuning Complex Fluids for Environmental and Energy-Saving Applications: Exploring Aerosols, Flocculates, and Spheres

Cari Dutcher, Benjamin Mayhugh Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Science and Engineering, University of Minnesota

The structure and assembly of particles suspended in a liquid or gaseous phase are known to play essential roles in environmental fields ranging from hydrology to atmospheric science. In this talk, recent advancements in our understanding of colloidal particle structure, formation, and aggregation in areas of environmental remediation will be highlighted. Particles will range from atmospheric aerosols, to polymer-particle flocculates, and charged spherical beads. First, a novel method for predicting the internal structure of atmospheric aerosol particles will be introduced using biphasic microfluidic flows for generating, trapping, and perturbing two-phase systems. Second, new studies of flocculation of suspended particles using water-soluble ionic polymers in micro- and macro-scale flows will be presented for water treatment applications. Third, electrohydrodynamic flows used to form closed-packed patterns of colloidal particles near electrodes will be discussed, including observations of surprising low frequency order-to-disorder transitions. The talk will end with implications for the use of electrohydrodynamic flow for studies of polyelectrolyte-particle assemblies.

Upcoming Seminars:

Feb. 17 
Joseph Nichols, Assistant Professor, Department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics, College of Science and Engineering, University of Minnesota 
TBA
 
Feb. 24 
Joseph Magner, Research Professor, Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota
Watershed Management in the Eastern Himalayas