Speaker：Prof. Ronald G. Larson（NAEmember）

Time：May 14th, 2025 at 10:00 AM

Location: Lecture Room 324,AISMST

Abstract:

Continuum-level thermodynamic, rheology,and flow properties relevant to industrial and consumer applications can now becomputed from multi-scale simulations ranging from molecular dynamics (MD),Brownian dynamics (BD), and continuum fluid mechanical simulations. Molecularsimulations are aided by biasing methods, such as umbrella sampling, andforward flux sampling. Reduction of computation is assisted by non-linearoptimization methods, including the Genetic Algorithm and the Particle SwarmMethod. We demonstrate the power of these methods by computing the dynamics andrheology of “polymer-like” worm-like surfactant solutions and colloid-polymermixtures used in consumer and industrial products, namely shampoos and paints,and film blowing of polyethylene polymers. We also compare the predictedresults to experimental data, and extract information, that is unavailable, ornot easily available, from experiments alone.

Biography: 

Ronald Larson received a B.S in 1975, anM.S. in 1977, and a Ph.D. in 1980, all in chemical engineering from theUniversity of Minnesota. Dr. Larson became a Professor of Chemical Engineeringat the University of Michigan in 1996, and Department Chairman in 2000, afterworking for 16 years at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. He also servedas interim Chair of the Biomedical Engineering Department for a year, and is amember of that department, the Mechanical Engineering Department, the AppliedPhysics Department, and the Macromolecular Science and Engineering Program.Larson’s research interests are in the structure and flow properties of viscousor elastic fluids, sometimes called “complex fluids”, which include polymers,colloids, surfactant-containing fluids, and liquid crystals, as well as themethods of shaping such materials into useful products. He is the author of themonograph “The Structure and Rheology of Complex Fluids”. He is a recipient ofAIChE’s Alpha Chi Sigma Award for Chemical Engineering Research (2000), theBingham Medal from the Society of Rheology (2002), and the Polymer PhysicsPrize of the American Physical Society (2019). In 2003, he was elected to theNational Academy of Engineering.