Clogging and avalanches in quasi-two-dimensional emulsion hopper flow.

We experimentally and computationally study the flow of a quasi-two-dimensional emulsion through a constricting hopper shape. Our area fractions are above jamming such that the droplets are always in contact with one another and are in many cases highly deformed. At the lowest flow rates, the droplets often clog and thus exit the hopper via intermittent avalanches. At the highest flow rates, the droplets exit continuously. The transition between these two types of behaviors is a fairly smooth function of the mean strain rate. The avalanches are characterized by a power-law distribution of the time interval between droplets exiting the hopper, with long intervals between the avalanches. Our computational studies reproduce the experimental observations by adding a flexible compliance to the system (in other words, a finite stiffness of the sample chamber). The compliance results in continuous flow at high flow rates, and allows the system to clog at low flow rates leading to avalanches. The computational results suggest that the interplay of the flow rate and compliance controls the presence or absence of the avalanches.

Sensitivity of coda wave interferometry to fluid migration through rock.

The sound speed of a porous medium changes with fluid substitution when the fluids have different acoustic properties. The authors demonstrate that coda wave interferometry is capable of sensing subtle local sound speed changes associated with minute fluid displacements, Δh. In fact the resolution on fluid motion is given by a simple scaling relationship, Δhmin/λ∼t-γe2αt, where t is the waveform time, λ is the wavelength, γ is a constant that varies based on the nature of the acoustic propagation, and α is a system specific acoustic attenuation coefficient. In contrast to the conventional notion that later arrivals (further into the coda) give greater sensitivity to fluid movement, this scaling relationship suggests that there is a temporal optimum in sensitivity to Δh. This is the case even though later arrivals exhibit signal intensities well above the noise floor. The authors elucidate the physical basis for determining the waveform time at which the sensitivity is optimal.

Kilogram-scale prexasertib monolactate monohydrate synthesis under continuous-flow CGMP conditions.

Advances in drug potency and tailored therapeutics are promoting pharmaceutical manufacturing to transition from a traditional batch paradigm to more flexible continuous processing. Here we report the development of a multistep continuous-flow CGMP (current good manufacturing practices) process that produced 24 kilograms of prexasertib monolactate monohydrate suitable for use in human clinical trials. Eight continuous unit operations were conducted to produce the target at roughly 3 kilograms per day using small continuous reactors, extractors, evaporators, crystallizers, and filters in laboratory fume hoods. Success was enabled by advances in chemistry, engineering, analytical science, process modeling, and equipment design. Substantial technical and business drivers were identified, which merited the continuous process. The continuous process afforded improved performance and safety relative to batch processes and also improved containment of a highly potent compound.

Measurement of Stress Redistribution in Flowing Emulsions.

We study how local rearrangements alter droplet stresses within flowing dense quasi-two-dimensional emulsions at area fractions ϕ≥0.88. Using microscopy, we measure droplet positions while simultaneously using their deformed shape to measure droplet stresses. We find that rearrangements alter nearby stresses in a quadrupolar pattern: stresses on neighboring droplets tend to either decrease or increase depending on location. The stress redistribution is more anisotropic with increasing ϕ. The spatial character of the stress redistribution influences where subsequent rearrangements occur. Our results provide direct quantitative support for rheological theories of dense amorphous materials that connect local rearrangements to changes in nearby stress.

Dynamics of mussel plaque detachment.

Mussels are well known for their ability to generate and maintain strong, long-lasting adhesive bonds under hostile conditions. Many prior studies attribute their adhesive strength to the strong chemical interactions between the holdfast and substrate. While chemical interactions are certainly important, adhesive performance is also determined by contact geometry, and understanding the coupling between chemical interactions and the plaque shape and mechanical properties is essential in deploying bioinspired strategies when engineering improved adhesives. To investigate how the shape and mechanical properties of the mussel's plaque contribute to its adhesive performance, we use a custom built load frame capable of fully characterizing the dynamics of the detachment. With this, we can pull on samples along any orientation, while at the same time measuring the resulting force and imaging the bulk deformations of the plaque as well as the holdfast-substrate interface where debonding occurs. We find that the force-induced yielding of the mussel plaque improves the bond strength by two orders of magnitude and that the holdfast shape improves bond strength by an additional order of magnitude as compared to other simple geometries. These results demonstrate that optimizing the contact geometry can play as important a role on adhesive performance as optimizing the chemical interactions as observed in other organisms and model systems.

Experimental observation of local rearrangements in dense quasi-two-dimensional emulsion flow.

We experimentally study rearranging regions in slow athermal flow by observing the flow of a concentrated oil-in-water emulsion in a thin chamber with a constricting hopper shape. The gap of the chamber is smaller than the droplet diameters, so that the droplets are compressed into quasi-two-dimensional pancakes. We focus on localized rearrangements known as "T1 events" where four droplets exchange neighbors. Flowing droplets are deformed due to forces from neighboring droplets, and these deformations are decreased by nearby T1 events, with a spatial dependence related to the local structure. We see a tendency of the T1 events to occur in small clusters.

Influence of particle size distribution on random close packing of spheres.

The densest amorphous packing of rigid particles is known as random close packing. It has long been appreciated that higher densities are achieved by using collections of particles with a variety of sizes. For spheres, the variety of sizes is often quantified by the polydispersity of the particle size distribution: the standard deviation of the radius divided by the mean radius. Several prior studies quantified the increase of the packing density as a function of polydispersity. A particle size distribution is also characterized by its skewness, kurtosis, and higher moments, but the influence of these parameters has not been carefully quantified before. In this work, we numerically generate many sphere packings with different particle radii distributions, varying polydispersity and skewness independently of one another. We find that the packing density can increase significantly with increasing skewness and in some cases skewness can have a larger effect than polydispersity. However, the packing fraction is relatively insensitive to the higher moment value of the kurtosis. We present a simple empirical formula for the value of the random close packing density as a function of polydispersity and skewness.

Characterizing the rheology of fluidized granular matter.

In this study we characterize the rheology of fluidized granular matter subject to secondary forcing. Our approach consists of first fluidizing granular matter in a drum half filled with grains via simple rotation and then superimposing oscillatory shear perpendicular to the downhill flow direction. The response of the system is mostly linear, with a phase lag between the grain motion and the oscillatory forcing. The rheology of the system can be well characterized by the GDR MiDi model if the system is forced with slow oscillations. The model breaks down when the forcing time scale becomes comparable to the characteristic time for energy dissipation in the flow.

Random close packing of disks and spheres in confined geometries.

Studies of random close packing of spheres have advanced our knowledge about the structure of systems such as liquids, glasses, emulsions, granular media, and amorphous solids. In confined geometries, the structural properties of random-packed systems will change. To understand these changes, we study random close packing in finite-sized confined systems, in both two and three dimensions. Each packing consists of a 50-50 binary mixture with particle size ratio of 1.4. The presence of confining walls significantly lowers the overall maximum area fraction (or volume fraction in three dimensions). A simple model is presented, which quantifies the reduction in packing due to wall-induced structure. This wall-induced structure decays rapidly away from the wall, with characteristic length scales comparable to the small particle diameter.