Speaker: Qi Wang, Mathematics and Nano-Center U. South Carolina
Title: Kinetic models for complex fluid systems: modeling and simulations

Abstract: Kinetic theories are developed for describing mesoscopic dynamics in modeling natural and engineered phenomena. It is based on a few mean field assumptions, mesoscopic as well as macroscopic balance laws. They provide more detailed and richer dynamics than any macroscopic theories for complex fluids. In particular, the model parameters in kinetic theories can all be traced back to their mean field origins. The success of kinetic theories such as the rigid rod models of Doi and Hess, the reptation model for polymer melts, etc. in studying polymer flows and their rheology reaffirmed the usefulness of the modeling framework. In this talk, I will discuss the basic ingredients in the kinetic theory and a phenomenological or phase space construction of the kinetic theory. More rigorous development of kinetic theory can be carried out via the Liouville equation in statistical statistics and a set of coarse-graining protocols. I will then focus on the models for liquid crystal polymers, multiphase complex fluids and biofilms. Numerical simulations of droplet formation and their internal mesostructures and biofim dynamics in channel flows will be presented.

Time: Friday, Sept. 24, 2010, 1:30-2:30 p.m.

Place: Science and Tech I, Room 242

Department of Mathematical Sciences
George Mason University
4400 University Drive, MS 3F2
Fairfax, VA 22030-4444
http://math.gmu.edu/
Tel. 703-993-1460, Fax. 703-993-1491