Role of Bubble Interfaces in Diverse Engineering Applications - Dr Ketan Pancholi

Published: 21 September 2015

Date & Time: Monday, 9th May 2016, 11:00-12:00 Venue: Room 514, Rankine Building

We are going to have a seminar on 'Role of Bubble Interfaces in Diverse Engineering Applications' on Monday, 9th May 2016, 11:00-12:00pm, given by Dr Ketan Pancholi, lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at Robert Gordon University.

Abstract and biography are given below.

Date & Time:  Monday, 9th May 2016, 11:00-12:00
Venue:           Room 514, Rankine Building

Tea/coffee/biscuits before the start.

 

 


Abstract

Interfaces between phases are responsible for many physical phenomenon such as formation of droplets, capillary rise, internal reflection or refraction or interference of waves and adsorption of particles. These properties of interface enable many applications such as material nano-structuring, chemical reaction intensification and optical manipulations.
In order to demonstrate the importance of interface in two diverse applications, two different experiments were carried out at RGU. In first experiment, the monolayer of foam (~liquid fraction 0.11) placed on highly reflective surface was pumped with a 532 nm continuous wave laser at ~45° from the substrate normal. The interface between two adjacent bubbles was found to be channelising light. Additionally, the adsorption of the polymer and dye increased the local dye concentration to form hemispherical micelle-dye agglomerates at the bubble interface. The presence of the micelle aggregation increased the residence time of the light and generated random lasing. These results could have significant impact for a number of applications such as photocatalytic conversion at bubble interfaces.
In other experiment, the study of bubble splitting in air flow through orifice was carried out. It was observed that when co-flowing gas in liquid jet surrounded by air passes through a 100μm orifice, it disintegrates into small bubbles to increase interfacial concentration. Additionally, mean diameter of these bubbles depend on the ratio of gas to liquid weber numbers. It is demonstrated that such bubble splitting is useful in biomedical applications and prediction of structural safety of riser in the oil and gas industry.

Biography

Ketan Pancholi is lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at Robert Gordon University. With background in Mechanical Engineering, he has worked in metallurgy and energy industry before joining the university teaching. During his PhD under joint supervision of Prof Edirisinghe and Prof Eleanor Stride at University College London, he started working on microbubble production methodologies using microfluidics. As a part of PhD, he developed two methods of producing microbubble such as T-Junction and T-junction coupled with electrospray. Additionally, he also demonstrated the possibility of using microbubbles in application such as material processing and image contrast agents. Soon after his graduation, he worked at Robert Gordon University and Newcastle University as a lecturer. He has research interest in every aspect of bubbles, multi-layered droplets and foams which finds applications in varied fields such as biomedical, self-assembly based microscale material manipulation and fluid-structure interaction.

First published: 21 September 2015