Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	GR/A00933/02
Title:	SURFACE TENSION-DRIVEN FLOWS WITH SINGULARITIES AND MOVING CONTACT LINES
Principal Investigator:	Billingham, Professor J
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department:	Sch of Mathematical Sciences
Organisation:	University of Nottingham
Scheme:	Advanced Fellowship (Pre-FEC)
Starts:	01 September 2003	Ends:	30 September 2005	Value (£):	101,383
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Non-linear Systems Mathematics
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	No relevance to Underpinning Sectors
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Summary on Grant Application Form
Free surface flows are important in a variety of naturally occuring and industrial situations. When the free surface is in contact with a solid surface there will be a contact line which is often moving. The motion of the contact line influences the flow field and, in the case of small scale flows, dominates it. In any mixing process the topology of the free surface will change as droplets and bubbles break up and coalesce. The motion of the contact lines and the singular behaviour of free surfaces during topological transitions is the subject of the proposed project.Specifically I will consider a new theory for the motion of contact lines using forced 2-dimensional sloshing in a rectangular container as a simple but physically relevant test problem. In addition I will study the small time asymptotic solution for the coalescence of inviscid cylinders and spheres under the action of surface tension. Finally I will determine how viscosity modifies the behaviour of free surfaces with an initially singular curvature.The work has applications to a wide variety of industrially relevant flows, many of which are already being studied in the School of Maths and Stats at Uni of Birmingham. These include coating flows in the production of photographic film (Kodak) swirling, unstable jet flows in the production of fertiliser pellets (Norsk) and the spreading of small water droplets on a chemically active surface (Pilkington) and the break up and coalescence of droplets in food emulsion (Unilever).
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Organisation Website:	http://www.nottingham.ac.uk