Twelve (12) Early-Stage Researchers were recruited during the first year of the project to 7 beneficiaries who are at: KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden), Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden), University of Bordeaux (France), ESPCI (France), INRAE (France), University of Naples (Italy) and University of Patras (Greece). In this period, all but one ESR have already started their secondments to academic or industrial partners. These secondments benefited the ESRs careers and PhD studies, and have resulted in many new collaborations within the consortium.
The two first YIELDGAP Graduate Schools, of 5 days each, were held during the first reporting period. The first School was organized by KTH (held digitally), and the second one was held at Capri, Italy, organized by UNINA. Following our plan, the ESRs and external participants were introduced to yield-stress materials, their physical and chemical properties, approaches to measure and characterize them in academia and industry, and existing modelling approaches from continuum (macroscale) to mesoscale. They have also learned transferrable skills, including communication and presentation, and report writing. In the remaining Schools, the ESRs will further deepen their technical skills, and prepare for bridging computational and experimental rheology and modelling, which will result in database and guidelines for prediction of YSFs.
The Early-Stage Researchers (ESRs) have been working on their PhD between 1-1.5 years by the time of this report, and together with academic and industrial partners have already made scientific progress in a wide variety of areas connected to the four scientific workpackages.
In WP3, 5 ESRs are working individually and together to improve computational models by including the following realistic effects in their models and software: time-dependent rheology (thixo-elasto-visco-plastic effects), particles, bubbles and droplets present in many real fluids, and complex geometries. A journal paper on particle sedimentation was published in Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics, and many conference presentations have been given.
In WP4, 5 ESRs are working collaboratively on how to measure relevant YSF properties and connect them to model parameters. Especially, they are quantifying how behaviours of real-world materials can be measured in a reliable way and connected to model parameters, both industrial materials such as yoghurt and mayonnaise, and work on designing lab fluids with controlled and tunable properties (yield stress, elasticity). Secondments have been conducted allowing ESRs to collaborate with each other and the industry.
In WP5, 4 ESRs are working on experimental validation of computational models, using lab fluids and industrial fluids. Here, we explore novel measurement techniques that can be used also for opaque fluids, characterisation of how YSFs slide over different surfaces (slip behaviour), and turbulent flows of YSFs. One journal paper has been published, and many conference presentations have been given.
In WP6, 2 ESRs are working on improved prediction of natural disasters (debris and lava flows) by developing computational methods for these challenging free-surface flows. A journal paper is under review and several conference presentations have been given.
