Project Grant 2143943

This two-year, $400,138 project grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems will fund research into instabilities in suspension flows. The University of Illinois will conduct laboratory experiments and apply existing theory to explore suspension flows in structured channels. Researchers will characterize the laminar steady state as a function of Reynolds number for specified particle sizes and volume fractions. They will...

This $294,603 National Science Foundation project grant supports research and education activities related to dense suspensions. Specifically, the awardee will conduct collaborative research on the statistical mechanics and scaling theory of dense suspensions like cornstarch mixtures. Using simulations and experimental data analysis, the researchers will explore dynamical correlations, discontinuities in shear thickening and shear jamming transitions, and develop a continuum description of...

This National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems Project Grant award of $250,209 to Clemson University aims to investigate the motion and assembly of self-propelled "Marangoni surfers" on spherical interfaces, such as levitating water droplets in microgravity aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The project will establish a computational-experimental framework to study the complex interactions between particle...

This $379,600 National Science Foundation project grant supports research at Columbia University to develop autonomous micro-robots for navigation in complex microscopic environments. Specifically, the university will design time-varying magnetic fields to encode autonomous behavior of magnetic microparticles in response to gradients in surface topography and fluid velocity. Researchers will experimentally demonstrate particle navigation across landscapes and in microfluidic channels, informed...

The National Science Foundation awarded a $199,774 project grant to the Georgia Tech Research Corporation to support research investigating instabilities in suspension flows. The award is part of NSF's Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) and will fund laboratory experiments and theoretical modeling examining suspension flows in structured channels from June 2022 to May 2024. Specifically, the research aims to apply proven techniques for characterizing instabilities in pure Newtonian fluids to...

This $422,259 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) program (CFDA 47.070) will fund the development of a novel "Spherical Sailing Omnidirectional Rovers" (SSAILORS) technology. The primary objective is to establish the first spherical, wind-powered rover capable of moving in all directions, enabling persistent and autonomous characterization of remote environments. Through a combined physical and control...

This three-year, $416,729 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Engineering Directorate (ENG) will fund research into mechanical communication for multi-agent systems at Carnegie Mellon University from July 2022 through June 2025. The university will investigate how individual robotic agents can balance locomotion with exchanging information through their surrounding environment. Researchers will separate information transfer into transmit, receive, and locomote blocks to study...

This $361,476 National Science Foundation project grant supports research at the University of Pittsburgh to advance understanding of the two-way coupling between active matter and transport barriers in unsteady flows. Funded under the Engineering program (CFDA 47.041), the three-year award will investigate how light-guided brine shrimp interact with and influence large-scale transport structures in electromagnetically driven laboratory flows. Through two aims, the grantee will determine...

This $269,703 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems supports research and education on dense suspensions under the NSF Engineering program (CFDA 47.041). Specifically, the awardee Brandeis University will conduct collaborative research from February 1, 2023 to January 31, 2026 to develop understanding of microscopic correlations and macroscopic behavior in dense, shear-thickening suspensions. Using...

This three-year, $475,603 project grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) will fund the development of experimental, theoretical, and computational methods to predict the behavior of dense suspensions of frictionless particles, such as those found in landslides, mudslides, and underwater avalanches. Specifically, the awardee Cornell University will use advanced microscopy, rheology,...