Mathematics Colloquia and Seminars

Return to Colloquia & Seminar listing

In this talk, several dynamical systems modeling specific types of complex fluids are introduced. The internal microstructures evolution of these fluids will affect the macroscopic dynamics of the material, especially the rheology. Examples include polymer solutions and melts, liquid crystals, gels and micellar solutions. Such materials often have great practical utilities since the microstructures can be manipulated via processing flow to produce outstanding mechanical, optical or thermal properties. These materials also cover almost all the living tissues. We will emphasis the transport properties which induce the nonlinear elastic coupling in the stress. The different non-Newtonian properties such systems exhibit is of particular interest. We will discuss some analytical, as well as modeling problems in these models.