The energy deposition in a liquid drop on a nanosecond time scale by impact of a laser pulse can induce various reactions, such as vaporization or plasma generation. The hydrodynamic response of the drop can be extremely violent: The drop gets strongly deformed and propelled forward at several m/s, and subsequently fragments or even explodes.
We plan to use our existing experimental setup to study the laser-matter interaction for a high-energy laser pulse. Ultra high-speed cameras with frame rates up to
10^5 FPS and illumination techniques with a 10 ns exposure time are available in our lab. They allow us to link the laser impact to hydrodynamic events on the nanosecond time scale.
Uncategorized
Alumni postdoc
Calin Dan -
Prasad Perkelar - Now faculty at TIFR Hyderabad (India)
Roger Jeurissen - Now at ACFD Consultancy (NL)
Badr Kaoui - Now postdoc at Universität Bayreuth (Germany)
Oleksii Rudenko - Now at ASML (NL)
Valentina Lavezzo - Now at Philips (NL)
Andrea Scagliarini - Now Staff Scientist, Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nürnberg for Renewable Energy (Germany)
Matteo Lulli - Now postdoc at University of Tor Vergata (Italy)
Alumni Ph.D. students
Florian Janoschek (defended 11 December 2013)
Theo Driessen (defended 20 December 2013, at University of Twente co-supervised with Detlef Lohse)
Sudhir Srivastava (defended 7 May 2014)
Riccardo Scatamacchia (defended 29 January 2015)
Francesca Storti (defended 8 December 2014)
Alessandro Corbetta (defended 1 February 2016)
Michel van Hinsberg (defended 20 June 2016)
Francesca Tesser (defended 14 December 2016)
Sten Reijers
Compressible effects in drops impacted by a laser pulse
The impact of a laser pulse onto a liquid droplet induces strong deformation and propulsion of the droplet. Here, we aim to understand the droplet dynamics by performing lattice-Boltzmann simulations and doing a theoretical analysis. In the simulations, we model the laser impact as a pressure pulse on the droplet surface. The lattice-Boltzmann method provides an ideal framework to do this, as it allows multiphase fluids where we can study: phase change, bubble nucleation and compressibility effects (e.g. shock waves traveling inside the drop) induced by the pressure pulse. On the theoretical side, we want to get key insight in how the pressure-waves propagate and how velocity-fields build up as function of different pressure conditions on the boundary of the droplet.
Convection in multiphase fluid flows using lattice Boltzmann methods
Biferale, L., Perlekar, P., Sbragaglia, M. & Toschi, F. (2012). Convection in multiphase fluid flows using lattice Boltzmann methods. Physical Review Letters, 108(10):104502
We present high-resolution numerical simulations of convection in multiphase flows (boiling) using a novel algorithm based on a lattice Boltzmann method. We first study the thermodynamical and kinematic properties of the algorithm. Then, we perform a series of 3D numerical simulations changing the mean properties in the phase diagram and compare convection with and without phase coexistence at Rayleigh number 
. We show that in the presence of nucleating bubbles non-Oberbeck-Boussinesq effects develop, the mean temperature profile becomes asymmetric, and heat-transfer and heat-transfer fluctuations are enhanced, at all Ra studied. We also show that small-scale properties of velocity and temperature fields are strongly affected by the presence of the buoyant bubble leading to high non-Gaussian profiles in the bulk.
Inverse energy cascade in three-dimensional isotropic turbulence
Biferale, L., Musacchio, S. & Toschi, F. (2012). Inverse energy cascade in three-dimensional isotropic turbulence. Physical Review Letters, 108(16):164501
We study the statistical properties of homogeneous and isotropic three-dimensional (
) turbulent flows. By introducing a novel way to make numerical investigations of Navier-Stokes equations, we show that all 3D flows in nature possess a subset of nonlinear evolution leading to a reverse energy transfer: from small to large scales. Up to now, such an inverse cascade was only observed in flows under strong rotation and in quasi-two-dimensional geometries under strong confinement. We show here that energy flux is always reversed when mirror symmetry is broken, leading to a distribution of helicity in the system with a well-defined sign at all wave numbers. Our findings broaden the range of flows where the inverse energy cascade may be detected and rationalize the role played by helicity in the energy transfer process, showing that both 
and properties naturally coexist in all flows in nature. The unconventional numerical methodology here proposed, based on a Galerkin decimation of helical Fourier modes, paves the road for future studies on the influence of helicity on small-scale intermittency and the nature of the nonlinear interaction in magnetohydrodynamics.