Tuesday, 04/18/2023
2:00 PM
Steinman Hall #312
Professor James Bird
Boston University, Mechanical Engineering Department
“The Drainage and Collapse of Viscous Bare Bubbles“
Simultaneous Zoom Link [Please note passcode is required: blevich]
ABSTRACT
When a submerged air bubble rises to a liquid surface, it drains due to gravitational and capillary forces and eventually pops. This phenomenon has been studied for centuries and is relevant to numerous industrial and natural processes, ranging from glass manufacturing to respiratory aerosol formation. Yet, several fundamental questions remain unanswered, for example, why some bubbles have nearly constant thickness as they drain, whereas others are highly nonuniform, or why some bubbles wrinkle as they collapse. This talk explores these questions through a combination of experiments and theory. I highlight counter-intuitive mechanisms in which inertia, viscosity, gravity, and surface tension couple during film drainage and collapse, and suggest potential future applications for these mechanisms.
BRIEF ACADEMIC/EMPLOYMENT HISTORY:
1999-2003 Undergraduate at Brown University
2003-2004 Fulbright Fellowship to Australia to study fluid dynamics of coral reefs
2004-2010 PhD at Harvard University (Advisor Howard Stone)
2010-2012 NSF Math Postdoc Fellowship at MIT (Sponsor: John Bush)
2012-2019 Assistant Professor at Boston University
2019- Associate Professor at Boston University
MOST RECENT RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Fluid dynamics of drops and bubbles, Flows in porous media
