Department of Engineering, Durham University
Supervisors: Dr S. Veremieiev and Prof P.H. Gaskell
Closing date for applications: 10th December, 2021
Competition Funded PhD Project (UK and International Students)
About the Project
Start date and duration: 1st October, 2022 for 3.5 years
Durham University is seeking applications from suitably qualified individuals interested in pursuing a PhD programme of study who can demonstrate evidence of academic excellence at undergraduate and/or Masters level, as well as evidence of sufficient research skills to undertake the project.
The drying of a sessile droplet of water or other volatile solvent, carrying non-volatile solute or colloidal particles, typically leaves a deposit or stain on a substrate. Such deposits, and their uniformity, are vital to numerous technologies, such as ink-jet printing, microvessels and micro-lenses, spray-cooling, DNA mapping and DNA/RNA microarray generation [1, 2]. Intense study of the physical chemistry of drying droplets began with the publications [3, 4, 5] providing explanation of the ‘coffee-ring’ deposits formed by colloid-containing water droplets and the role of internal flow structure. More recent studies [6, 7] have demonstrated that more uniform deposits are possible with the use of binary fluids, however the route to their formation remains poorly understood. There are many reasons as to why: they may be very far from equilibrium; mass, momentum and heat transfer are strongly coupled; interactions between droplets lead to asymmetric drying or coalescence; droplets are typically small (10–200 μm diameter) and timescales short (<< 1s to a few minutes). This project will study the coffee-ring effect and will look at achieving more uniform deposits by generating Marangoni flow inside of the droplet. The focus will be the development and programming of a computational model for use in predicting the underlying behaviour associated with the drying of droplets. The over-arching goal is a model capable of explaining what is observed in practise. The holder of the studentship will work as part of a team involving PhD researchers and postdocs. Mathematical modelling with applications in engineering and fluid mechanics such as the one proposed, offers an exciting and extensive research training opportunity wherever the career aspirations of the successful applicant might lie; whether that’s engineering in general, programming, consulting or finance. The project will provide an in-house specialist training on mathematical modelling and fluid mechanics and externally lead training on Matlab, C++ programming and numerical methods, all of which represent an attractive and widely transferable skill set.
Candidate Requirements
We are interested to hear from graduates in engineering (chemical, mechanical, aeronautical, process), mathematics, physics, computer science and related subjects, with a keen interest in becoming part of the above project and holding, or due to graduate with 2:1 honours degree or equivalent. As well as having excellent communication skills, written and verbal, experience of one or more of the following topics would be advantageous: fluid mechanics, mathematical modelling, numerical methods, computer programming, high-performance computing, CFD.
How to Apply
General enquiries should be made to Dr S. Veremieiev ([Email Address Removed]) or Prof P.H. Gaskell ([Email Address Removed]), including requests for further information. Applications can be made directly online, designated for the attention of Dr S. Veremieiev, at:
https://www.durham.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/research-degrees/how-to-apply/ Your application pack should include: an up-to-date CV, two reference letters on a headed paper, copies of academic certificates and transcripts with English translation and evidence of English language proficiency (as per University regulations).
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