(6kl) Microscale Transport Phenomena: Data Analytics and Fluid Dynamics

The Wang laboratory will develop analytic technologies in the domain of microscale transport phenomena that are relevant to environment, health and energy. Specifically, we are interested in (1) particle technologies in microfluidics relevant to biomedical research, (2) clean/conventional energy research using data science, and (3) polymer modeling for material design.

We will achieve these goals through a combination of state-of-art machine learning method and tractable mathematical modeling. Given the potential of expanding the level, number, and depth of University-Private Sector research partnership in the United States, our long term vision is to establish a research program that emphasizes Institution-Industry collaboration, such as environmental agencies, pharmaceuticals and Oil & Gas energy sectors.

Research Experience

Postdoctoral: data analytics in enhanced oil recovery & novel approach in fluid/particle science and technology (Advisor: Sangtae Kim, Chemical Engineering, Purdue, 08/2016-current)

The United States is currently the world's top oil producer, and the national policy “supports research and policy options to increase our domestic supply of oil while ensuring environmentally sustainable supplies domestically and abroad" (Department of Energy). An estimated two thirds of conventional crude oil in mature fields remains unproduced due to the physics of fluid flow. As such, new techniques are needed for chemically-enhanced oil recovery (EOR), in order to overcome the physical force holding hydrocarbons and turn the accumulations into oil reserves.

I have performed critical work on oil recovery, in collaboration with Pioneer Oil Company. One oil recovery method is to apply surfactants into injected water, but there is a lack of detailed information about the compounds and structure of the industrial surfactants. It is critically important to understand the phase behavior for the oil/water/surfactant systems. By applying machine learning, my goal is to form a microemulsion phase achieving the lowest interfacial tension, which increases the capillary number and dramatically recovers the remaining oil fraction within the pore. I treated the system as a multinomial classification problem, optimizing the system via support vector machine.

Another challenging and interesting research area which I am interested in is ellipsoidal microhydrodynamics. It has significant implications for research and industry as ellipsoidal nanoparticles are frequently encountered in various applications including those involving pharmaceuticals, foods and cosmetics.

Graduate: transport and mixing induced by swimming organisms and settling/rising particles (Advisor: Arezoo Ardekani, Mechanical Engineering, Notre Dame, 08/2011-05/2016)

The motion of microorganisms in the ocean is a crucial part of the effective management of ocean, coastal, and great lakes waters, “including increased understanding of potential responses to global environmental variability and climate change." as stated by Science and Technology Center for Microbial Oceanography Research and Education (C-MORE, Division of Biological Infrastructure, NSF). The influence of density stratification on the motion of a body is critical to understanding the stainability of the ocean environment, but is a complex problem which is only starting to be explored.

My past work has focused on small planktonic organisms that display unsteady or impulsive motion. They use contractile elements, cilia and flagella, and appendages to propel themselves, and their motion may affect ocean stratification. During my Ph.D. research, I have contributed to four projects funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that provided major advances in this area. I performed a significant study on sedimentation and swimming in ocean environments. In addition, I have studied the unbounded settling dynamics of a circular disk, a prototypical model of marine organisms, biomass, and pollutant particles. I examined three different environments and identified the transport phenomena of particles, bubbles, and marine organisms.

Teaching Interests

My teaching interests include the fundamental of momentum and mass transport and an elective focus on Microhydrodynamics. Thanks to my undergraduate and graduate training in fluid mechanics program, I have experience with core transport phenomenon, and heat and mass transport that are critical for chemical engineering students. I will leverage my graduate and postdoctoral training and provide students with an ability to intuitively understand how particle technologies can be applied to academic research and industrial settings. In addition, I will be actively seeking co-op opportunities for students by bridging the relationships between university and industries.

Teaching Experience

Mentoring: 2 undergraduates, 1 graduate student (Purdue, 2016-present)

Guest lecture, CHE37700 (Purdue, 2016 fall)

Tutor for 6th-9th graders participating in WIEP (For Your Imagination Program) event (Purdue, 2016)

Guest lecturer of Bowman Creek Project (Riley High School, South Bend, IN, 2013)

Selected publications (out of 13 total)

First-author contributions are underlined

Wang, S., Martin, C.P. and Kim, S., 2019. Improper integrals as a puzzle for creeping flow around an ellipsoid. Physics of Fluids, 31(2), p.021101. (Invited papers on transport phenomena in celebration of Prof. Robert Byron Bird’s 95^th birthday)

Wang, S., Ellett, K.M. and Ardekani, A.M., 2017. Assessing the utility of high-level CO2 storage and utilization resource estimates for CCS system modelling. Energy Procedia, 114, pp.4658-4665.

Wang, S. and Ardekani, A.M., 2015. Biogenic mixing induced by intermediate Reynolds number swimming in stratified fluids. Scientific reports, 5, p.17448. (Highlighted on Physics.org, Futurity, Geology Page, Purdue College of Engineering News Page, Purdue Research Computing Cluster)

Wang, S. and Ardekani, A.M., 2012. Unsteady swimming of small organisms. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 702, pp.286-297.

Author

Shiyan Wang

Purdue University