Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CoPerMix (Control Prediction and LeaRning in Mixing processes)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2021-01-01 al 2022-12-31
The CoPerMix ITN program is intended to make fundamental progress in the field of mixing, the science describing the route to uniformity in stirred systems.
On the heuristic side, we develop and promote a novel and unified lamellar description of mixing processes, and its `quantum’ representation (identifying the elementary bricks and their interaction in a mixture). Concerning the applications fields, we also pay attention to identifying all sub-area of science and technology where these concepts can find relevance and/or usefulness, hence the broad range and diversity of topics of our 15 PhD students (Early Scientific Researchers, ESRs). Their work goes from cloud physics (mixing of droplets), chemotaxis (the locomotion of animals in stirred environment), safety (dispersion of pollutants), landscape formation (mixing in soils and porous media), thermo-aline convection (mixing in the ocean), or to the developments of news bioreactors, for example. In all these sectors, we trust that our impact will contribute to better understanding, and therefore to improved practices and policies.
Our faith is that pushing further the boundaries of knowledge is the best way to contribute to applications, of whatever nature they may be. Given the success of our two workshops held so far, and the enthusiasm of our ESRs, our goal is to pursue our efforts following the same virtuous track.
On the heuristic side, we develop and promote a novel and unified lamellar description of mixing processes, and its `quantum’ representation (identifying the elementary bricks and their interaction in a mixture). Concerning the applications fields, we also pay attention to identifying all sub-area of science and technology where these concepts can find relevance and/or usefulness, hence the broad range and diversity of topics of our 15 PhD students (Early Scientific Researchers, ESRs). Their work goes from cloud physics (mixing of droplets), chemotaxis (the locomotion of animals in stirred environment), safety (dispersion of pollutants), landscape formation (mixing in soils and porous media), thermo-aline convection (mixing in the ocean), or to the developments of news bioreactors, for example. In all these sectors, we trust that our impact will contribute to better understanding, and therefore to improved practices and policies.
Our faith is that pushing further the boundaries of knowledge is the best way to contribute to applications, of whatever nature they may be. Given the success of our two workshops held so far, and the enthusiasm of our ESRs, our goal is to pursue our efforts following the same virtuous track.
A number of very original observations have already been made in various sub-aspects of the project, for instance regarding mixing in stratified media (like the ocean), and mixing of fluids with very different viscosities (like in several industrial applications involving pastes), some of them beyond our initial expectations (the `diffuselet’ concept for mixing), a major conceptual advance for the modeling of mixing. A few examples among other achievements:
ESR 1 and 6 (Aix-Marseille and CNRS) have finalized building their experimental set-up: they consists in rotating Taylor-Couette devices to study mixing in rotating/stratified/viscous flows with applications to geophysics, the industry of pastes and stirring of fragile objects like algae in bioreactors.
ESR 10 At TUIL works with simulation on the theoretical foundations of turbulence, turbulent mixing in relation to cloud microphysics. He implemented a Lagrangian module which tracks the individual water droplets in the cloud to compute various statistical properties of the swarm of droplets necessary to elaborate a physical understanding of the processes involved in storms, in particular.
ESR 13 at UNESCO studies chemotactic strategies in stirred environments and has developed a new finite-state-controller algorithm that is competitive with previous approaches. A public repository has been created which allows to compute the optimal policy and evaluate its performance in user-defined environments. Demos for a selected choice of environments are given.
ESR 15 at EAWAG in Zürich finished the development of a microfluidic platform for the study of chemotaxis experiments and works in parallel on numerical and the theoretical modeling of his configuration.
Several ESRs have attended several conferences to disseminate their results. The Copermix Project has been represented at: the GRC - Oscillations and Dynamic Instabilities in Chemical Systems (USA), COST Chemobionics Pisa Annual Meeting (IT), GRC on Flow and Transport in Permeable Media (SZ), EGU (AT), GRS/GRC Ocean Mixing (USA),EFMC14 (GR), Spain InterPore Chapter (SP), etc... in addition to the two scientific workshops in Marseille and Trieste organized within the ITN frame.
ESR 1 and 6 (Aix-Marseille and CNRS) have finalized building their experimental set-up: they consists in rotating Taylor-Couette devices to study mixing in rotating/stratified/viscous flows with applications to geophysics, the industry of pastes and stirring of fragile objects like algae in bioreactors.
ESR 10 At TUIL works with simulation on the theoretical foundations of turbulence, turbulent mixing in relation to cloud microphysics. He implemented a Lagrangian module which tracks the individual water droplets in the cloud to compute various statistical properties of the swarm of droplets necessary to elaborate a physical understanding of the processes involved in storms, in particular.
ESR 13 at UNESCO studies chemotactic strategies in stirred environments and has developed a new finite-state-controller algorithm that is competitive with previous approaches. A public repository has been created which allows to compute the optimal policy and evaluate its performance in user-defined environments. Demos for a selected choice of environments are given.
ESR 15 at EAWAG in Zürich finished the development of a microfluidic platform for the study of chemotaxis experiments and works in parallel on numerical and the theoretical modeling of his configuration.
Several ESRs have attended several conferences to disseminate their results. The Copermix Project has been represented at: the GRC - Oscillations and Dynamic Instabilities in Chemical Systems (USA), COST Chemobionics Pisa Annual Meeting (IT), GRC on Flow and Transport in Permeable Media (SZ), EGU (AT), GRS/GRC Ocean Mixing (USA),EFMC14 (GR), Spain InterPore Chapter (SP), etc... in addition to the two scientific workshops in Marseille and Trieste organized within the ITN frame.
Concerning heuristics progresses on the lamellar representation of mixing, the concept of `diffuselet’, and the ongoing `quantum’ theory of mixing, which consists in representing a mixture as the sum of its fundamental constituents (the diffuselets which we call quanta) and their interaction rule, is with no doubt way beyond the state of the art of the discipline. It provides very precise predictions and is easily adapted to numerical computations. It is undoubtedly one of the highlights of the program.
Other advances are expected in the field of mixing in stratified flows, a longstanding question, which has received recently (with ESR2) decisive elements of answers. The -practically not investigated before- mixing of fluids with very different viscosities will most probably progress fundamentally. More generally, our ESRs, working at the forefront of their respective disciplines, contribute to a better understanding of the fundamentals, and therefore foster improved methods when these need to be improved, may they concern the search for better productivity, design policies, or safety practices.
In sum, the goal of CoPerMix is to train a new generation of scientists via research on these scientific objectives to revolutionize the approach to mixing across different fields ranging from blending/stirring protocols, chemistry, biology, and physics to environmental sciences using a multidisciplinary approach which integrates leading academic and industrial partners. This endeavour involves original experiments, refined theories, modelling, and the enrollment of students in fertilizing exchanges between various research communities to open their minds to unexpected aspects, consequences, or applications of their work.
It is a great benefit of this interdisciplinary program to raise a generation of young researchers for addressing these outstanding issues in the near future.
Other advances are expected in the field of mixing in stratified flows, a longstanding question, which has received recently (with ESR2) decisive elements of answers. The -practically not investigated before- mixing of fluids with very different viscosities will most probably progress fundamentally. More generally, our ESRs, working at the forefront of their respective disciplines, contribute to a better understanding of the fundamentals, and therefore foster improved methods when these need to be improved, may they concern the search for better productivity, design policies, or safety practices.
In sum, the goal of CoPerMix is to train a new generation of scientists via research on these scientific objectives to revolutionize the approach to mixing across different fields ranging from blending/stirring protocols, chemistry, biology, and physics to environmental sciences using a multidisciplinary approach which integrates leading academic and industrial partners. This endeavour involves original experiments, refined theories, modelling, and the enrollment of students in fertilizing exchanges between various research communities to open their minds to unexpected aspects, consequences, or applications of their work.
It is a great benefit of this interdisciplinary program to raise a generation of young researchers for addressing these outstanding issues in the near future.