Title: Manipulating transport properties of passive tracers in channels via cross section

Abstract:

Traditionally, theory developed for dispersion of passive tracers in fluid flow has focused on predicting the effect of anomalous diffusion which occurs as the result of laminar flow. A distribution will appear to spread much more rapidly than could be explained as the result of diffusion alone, and decades of theory have been developed to successfully explain this. In our prior work, we developed asymptotic theory which predicts not only spread (variance), but also the sign differences in the distribution's skewness depending on cross section. This theory has had success matching with both experiment and numerical simulation.

I will discuss these past results, then present a computational framework to extend this work past idealized cross sections and explore some questions in shape optimization towards more precise control of the tracer distribution, exploring the ability to design channels to match a given specification.