(94a) Mesoscience: Opening a New Paradigm of Particle Technology

Mesoscience: Opening a new
paradigm of particle technology

Jinghai Li

National Key
Laboratory of Multi-phase complex systems

Institute of
Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Beijing 100190,
P. R. China

Email: jhli@ipe.ac.cn

Mesoscale
phenomena exist in between “unit”
scales and “system” scales at different levels of the real world, spaning from
elemental particle to the universe, as indicated in the following Figure^[1].
Understanding of complex processes at mesoscales, characterized by spatiotemporal
dynamic structures, is a common challenge for the whole spectrum of science and
technology.

This
presentation reviews the three decades of research on mesoscales of particulate
systems at IPE-CAS. It was initiated by the energy-minimization multiscale
(EMMS) model specific for gas-solid fluidization^[2], which
established the stability condition or variational function for particle
clustering phenomenon. In extending the model to many different complex
systems, such as gas-liquid, turbulence, gas-liquid-solid, emulsion, material preparation,
protein, and catalysis systems, the EMMS principle was then proposed generally
for different complex systems, featuring compromise in competition between
different dominant mechanisms in physics and formulated as multi-objective
variational problem in mathematics^[3]. With increasing understanding
of the generality of this principle, the concept of mesoscience was further advanced^[4,
5], and is believed to be potentially universal for all complex mesoscale
phenomena at different levels.

The
presentation will also give a perspective on mesoscience. It is believed that
more evidence will be needed from various disciplines^{[4, 5]},
particularly, from the field of particle technology where mesoscale phenomena occur
everywhere such as in formulating and processing particles. The development of
mesoscience will enable our capability in particle design, rational synthesis,
smart massive production and system optimization due to its underlying
principle to bridge unit scales and system scales. In contributing more
evidence to mesoscience in exploring its universality, in return, the knowledge,
tools and methods in particle technology will be upgraded to a new paradigm^[6].
In such a paradigm, the theory, computation and experiment at mesosclaes will be
dominant, and the virtual process engineering will be enabling^{[7, 8]}.

References：

1.        
J. Li, W. Ge
W. Wang, N. Yang, W. Huang, Focusing on mesoscales: from the
energy-minimization multiscale model to mesoscience, Current Opinion in
Chemical Engineering, 2016, 13: 10-23.

2.        
J. Li, Y.
Tung, M. Kwauk, Method of energy minimization in multi-scale modeling of
particle fluid two-phase flow, Circulating Fluidized Bed Technology II,
Basu and J. F. Large (eds), Pergamon Press, 1988, 89-103.

3.        
J. Li, J.
Zhang, W. Ge, X. Liu, Multi-scale methodology for complex systems, Chemical
Engineering Science, 2004, 59(8-9): 1687-1700.

4.        
J. Li, W. Ge,
W. Wang, N. Yang, X. Liu, L. Wang, X. He, X. Wang, J. Wang, M. Kwauk, From
multiscale modeling to meso-science -- a chemical engineering perspective,
Springer, Berlin, 2013.

5.        
J. Li, W.
Huang, Towards mesoscience: the principle of compromise in competition,
Springer, 2014.

6.        
J. Li,
Exploring the logic and landscape of the knowledge system: multilevel
structures, each multiscaled with complexity at the mesoscale, Engineering,
2016, 2: 276-285.

7.        
W. Ge, W.
Wang, N. Yang, J. Li, M. Kwauk, F. Chen, J. Chen, X. Fang, L. Guo, X. He, X.
Liu, Y. Liu, B. Lu, J. Wang, J. Wang, L. Wang, X. Wang, Q. Xiong, M. Xu, L.
Deng, Y. Han, C. Hou, L. Hua, W. Huang, B. Li, C. Li, F. Li, Y. Ren, J. Xu, N.
Zhang, Y. Zhang, G. Zhou, G. Zhou, Meso-scale oriented simulation towards
virtual process engineering (VPE) -- the EMMS paradigm, Chemical Engineering
Science, 2011, 66: 4426-4458.

8.        
X. Liu, L.
Guo, Z. Xia, B. Lu, M. Zhao, F. Meng, Z. Li, J. Li, Harnessing the power of
virtual reality, Chemical Engineering Progress, 2012, 108: 28-33.