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Applied Sciences
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Applications of Complex Fluids
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Applications of Complex Fluids

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2016) | Viewed by 36879

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Francisco Galindo Rosales

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Chemical Engineering, Transport Phenomena Research Center (CEFT), Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias s/n, CP 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
Interests: complex fluids; rheology; printing techniques
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

All fluids that exhibit a complex behavior as a result of a non-linear relationship between stress and deformation are considered as Complex Fluids. This sort of fluid stands between Hooke's law for an ideal elastic material and Newton's law of viscosity for an ideal viscous liquid. Thus, complex fluids encompass most synthetic and biological fluids, and, consequently, have a tremendous importance in the success of processes associated with industry and health.
Many interesting behaviors of complex fluids (shear thickening, viscoelasticity, thixotropy, etc.) are consequences of their formulations (macromolecules, particle-particle interactions, particle-molecules interactions, etc.) and bring associated many challenges, such as shelf-life, physico-chemical characterization, or processing. Additionally, the degeneration of some biological fluids is associated with some diseases, which results in a loss of their characteristic complex behavior and, consequently, impairing their performance, as in the case of synovial fluid in the protection of a joint. Moreover, the characteristic length-scale of the flow conditions can also be of extreme importance. In microscale processes, viscoelasticity can lead to flow instabilities at creeping flow conditions, which can, for example, be useful for enhancing mixing or oil recovery processes. Additionally, if the fluid is also sensitive to an external field (magnetic or electric), the complexity is even larger. Nevertheless, even in this latter circumstance, complex fluids can exhibit useful performances from a practical point of view, i.e., ferrofluids, magneto-rheological fluids, and electro-rheological fluids.
All the cited applications of complex fluids, and many more, require extensive fundamental work to become reality. There are indeed many difficulties to overcome, due to the non-linearity between stresses and deformation, but the benefits to be achieved can also be large. During the last century, fundamental and applied research has been paving the way toward practical applications of complex fluids. Progressively, worldwide efforts have led to a better knowledge and an increasing know-how in the formulation, characterization, modeling, manipulation, and processing of complex fluid. This Special Issue is expected to gather contributions that describe recent results obtained in various active fields of complex fluids and to demonstrate how said results can be important in light of application.

Dr. Francisco José Galindo-Rosales
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Long shelf life formulation of complex fluids
  • Characterization of complex fluids
  • Processing complex fluids
  • Complex fluid interfaces
  • Complex fluids in microscale process engineering
  • Complex fluids in free surface process operations
  • Complex fluids in biological processes
  • Complex fluids in building engineering
  • Complex fluids in domestic products
  • Complex fluids in cosmetics
  • Complex fluids in composites
  • Complex fluids in food industry
  • Complex fluids in porous media
  • Complex fluids in tribology and lubrication
  • Complex fluids in high-tech products
  • Transportation of complex fluids
  • Complex fluids in computational development
  • Applications of viscoelastic fluids
  • Applications of magneto-rheological fluids
  • Applications of ferrofluids
  • Applications of electro-rheological fluids
  • Applications of shear-thickening fluids
  • Applications of yield-stress fluids
  • Applications of thixotropic fluids
  • Applications of Boger fluids

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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15433 KiB  
Article
Microfluidic Fabrication Solutions for Tailor-Designed Fiber Suspensions
by Helene Berthet, Olivia Du Roure and Anke Lindner
Appl. Sci. 2016, 6(12), 385; https://doi.org/10.3390/app6120385 - 30 Nov 2016
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 4818
Abstract
Fibers are widely used in different industrial processes, for example in paper manufacturing or lost circulation problems in the oil industry. Recently, interest towards the use of fibers at the microscale has grown, driven by research in bio-medical applications or drug delivery systems. [...] Read more.
Fibers are widely used in different industrial processes, for example in paper manufacturing or lost circulation problems in the oil industry. Recently, interest towards the use of fibers at the microscale has grown, driven by research in bio-medical applications or drug delivery systems. Microfluidic systems are not only directly relevant for lab-on-chip applications, but have also proven to be good model systems to tackle fundamental questions about the flow of fiber suspensions. It has therefore become necessary to provide fiber-like particles with an excellent control of their properties. We present here two complementary in situ methods to fabricate controlled micro-fibers allowing for an embedded fabrication and flow-on-a-chip platform. The first one, based on a photo-lithography principle, can be used to make isolated fibers and dilute fiber suspensions at specific locations of interest inside a microchannel. The self-assembly property of super-paramagnetic colloids is the principle of the second fabrication method, which enables the fabrication of concentrated suspensions of more flexible fibers. We propose a flow gallery with several examples of fiber flow illustrating the two methods’ capabilities and a range of recent laminar flow results. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Complex Fluids)
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3341 KiB  
Article
Analysis of the Numerical Diffusion in Anisotropic Mediums: Benchmarks for Magnetic Field Aligned Meshes in Space Propulsion Simulations
by Daniel Pérez-Grande, Oscar Gonzalez-Martinez, Pablo Fajardo and Eduardo Ahedo
Appl. Sci. 2016, 6(11), 354; https://doi.org/10.3390/app6110354 - 15 Nov 2016
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 6569
Abstract
This manuscript explores numerical errors in highly anisotropic diffusion problems. First, the paper addresses the use of regular structured meshes in numerical solutions versus meshes aligned with the preferential directions of the problem. Numerical diffusion in structured meshes is quantified by solving the [...] Read more.
This manuscript explores numerical errors in highly anisotropic diffusion problems. First, the paper addresses the use of regular structured meshes in numerical solutions versus meshes aligned with the preferential directions of the problem. Numerical diffusion in structured meshes is quantified by solving the classical anisotropic diffusion problem; the analysis is exemplified with the application to a numerical model of conducting fluids under magnetic confinement, where rates of transport in directions parallel and perpendicular to a magnetic field are quite different. Numerical diffusion errors in this problem promote the use of magnetic field aligned meshes (MFAM). The generation of this type of meshes presents some challenges; several meshing strategies are implemented and analyzed in order to provide insight into achieving acceptable mesh regularity. Second, Gradient Reconstruction methods for magnetically aligned meshes are addressed and numerical errors are compared for the structured and magnetically aligned meshes. It is concluded that using the latter provides a more correct and straightforward approach to solving problems where anisotropicity is present, especially, if the anisotropicity level is high or difficult to quantify. The conclusions of the study may be extrapolated to the study of anisotropic flows different from conducting fluids. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Complex Fluids)
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1775 KiB  
Article
Superhydrophobic Surfaces Created by Elastic Instability of PDMS
by Abbas Sabbah, Ayman Youssef and Pascal Damman
Appl. Sci. 2016, 6(5), 152; https://doi.org/10.3390/app6050152 - 16 May 2016
Cited by 29 | Viewed by 9006
Abstract
Lotus flowers, rose petals, some plant leaves and insects have a naturally super-hydrophobic surface. In fact, the surface of a Lotus leaf is covered by micro and nano structures mixed with wax, which makes its surface superhydrophobic. In microfluidics, superhydrophobicity is an important [...] Read more.
Lotus flowers, rose petals, some plant leaves and insects have a naturally super-hydrophobic surface. In fact, the surface of a Lotus leaf is covered by micro and nano structures mixed with wax, which makes its surface superhydrophobic. In microfluidics, superhydrophobicity is an important factor in the rheometers on a chip. It is also sought in other complex fluids applications like the self-cleaning and the antibacterial materials. The wettability of the surface of solid support can be modified by altering its chemical composition. This means functionalizing the interface molecules to different chemical properties, and/or forming a thin film on the surface. We can also influence its texturing by changing its roughness. Despite considerable efforts during the last decade, superhydrophobic surfaces usually involve, among others, microfabrication processes, such as photolithography technique. In this study, we propose an original and simple method to create superhydrophobic surfaces by controlling elastic instability of poly-dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) films. Indeed, we demonstrate that the self-organization of wrinkles on top of non-wettable polymer surfaces leads to surperhydrophobic surfaces with contact angles exceeding 150°. We studied the transition Wenzel-Cassie, which indicated that the passage of morphology drops “impaled” to a type of morphology “fakir” were the strongest topographies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Complex Fluids)
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Review

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1887 KiB  
Review
Assessing the Dynamic Performance of Microbots in Complex Fluid Flows
by Laura Campo-Deaño
Appl. Sci. 2016, 6(12), 410; https://doi.org/10.3390/app6120410 - 07 Dec 2016
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 5872
Abstract
The use of microbots in biomedicine is a powerful tool that has been an object of study in the last few years. In the special case of using these microdevices in the human circulatory system to remove clots or to deliver drugs, the [...] Read more.
The use of microbots in biomedicine is a powerful tool that has been an object of study in the last few years. In the special case of using these microdevices in the human circulatory system to remove clots or to deliver drugs, the complex nature of blood flow must be taken into account for their proper design. The dynamic performance, defined in this context as the quantification of the disturbance of the flow around an object (which is essentially dependent on the microbot morphology and the rheological characteristics of the fluid) should be improved in order to diminish the damage inside the patient body and to increase the efficiency when they swim through the main veins or arteries. In this article, different experimental techniques (micro-Particle Image Velocimetry, flow visualization, pressure drop measurements, etc.) are analyzed to assess their dynamic performance when they swim through the human body immersed in complex fluid flows. This article provides a useful guide for the characterization of the dynamic performance of microbots and also highlights the necessity to consider the viscoelastic character of blood in their design. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Complex Fluids)
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1597 KiB  
Review
Complex Fluids in Energy Dissipating Systems
by Francisco J. Galindo-Rosales
Appl. Sci. 2016, 6(8), 206; https://doi.org/10.3390/app6080206 - 25 Jul 2016
Cited by 40 | Viewed by 9265
Abstract
The development of engineered systems for energy dissipation (or absorption) during impacts or vibrations is an increasing need in our society, mainly for human protection applications, but also for ensuring the right performance of different sort of devices, facilities or installations. In the [...] Read more.
The development of engineered systems for energy dissipation (or absorption) during impacts or vibrations is an increasing need in our society, mainly for human protection applications, but also for ensuring the right performance of different sort of devices, facilities or installations. In the last decade, new energy dissipating composites based on the use of certain complex fluids have flourished, due to their non-linear relationship between stress and strain rate depending on the flow/field configuration. This manuscript intends to review the different approaches reported in the literature, analyses the fundamental physics behind them and assess their pros and cons from the perspective of their practical applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Complex Fluids)
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