Current research projects cover a wide range of approaches and applications, involving almost half of our faculty. Analysis and experiment of the formation of microstructures during directional solidification. Physicochemical hydrodynamics of colloidal particles and flow in porous media. Defect formation and evolution in nearly crystalline materials. Fluid mechanics of polymer melts and solutions.
Projects are underway that emphasize analysis, computation and experimental measurement.
Analytical studies range from the applications of perturbation methods for studies of model problems to the statistical mechanical modeling and interpretation of microscale mechanisms for transport processes. Advanced computational methods for solving transport problems also are being developed using finite element and spectral methods for the accurate solution of partial differential equations employing conventional supercomputers and advanced parallel processing machines. Experimental projects use a host of optical methods to study flow and transport in simple fluids and in microstructured systems. Each of these facilities is available in the Landau Building . Applications of transport theory are central to research projects in every area of the Department.