Dissertation prize for Mathis Fricke
Modelling and simulation of wetting in the context of continuum mechanics
2021/10/29
Mathis Fricke receives an award for outstanding scientific achievement for the best dissertation in the Department of Mathematics. The prize was awarded for his dissertation “Mathematical modelling and Volume-of-Fluid based simulation of dynamic wetting”, supervised by Prof. Dr Dieter Bothe. The prize will be awarded in spring 2022 by the Association of Friends of the Technical University of Darmstadt.
Mathis Fricke's thesis deals with the modelling and simulation of wetting in the context of continuum mechanics. One of the challenges is the formulation of suitable boundary conditions for the Navier-Stokes equations at the solid surface and the free interface between liquid and gas. The evolution equation for the dynamic contact angle found and proven in this work provides an important tool for analysing a whole class of models. In particular, it is rigorously shown that solutions in one of the “standard models” are always singular at the contact line. Furthermore, it provides approaches for the further development of numerics. The accuracy of the geometric volume-of-fluid method near the contact line could be significantly improved so that a kinematically consistent transport of the contact angle is achieved. As part of a co-operation in the SFB 1194, the break-up dynamics of wetting capillary bridges could be correctly simulated qualitatively and quantitatively. The simulation allows a detailed study of the processes on small time scales that are not yet accessible to experiment.
Fricke, Mathis (2021): Mathematical modelling and Volume-of-Fluid based simulation of dynamic wetting. Dissertation, Technical University of Darmstadt, https://doi.org/10.12921/tuprints-00014274
