Disputation: Stephane Poulain

Doctoral candidate Stephane Poulain at the Department of Mathematics will be defending the thesis Capillarity, Elastohydrodynamic, and Fluid-Structure Interactions at Small Scales for the degree of Philosophiae Doctor.

picture of the candidate

Doctoral candidate Stephane Poulain.

The PhD defence will be in Abels utsikt - Niels Henrik Abels hus. The host of the session will moderate the technicalities while the chair of the defence will moderate the disputation.

Ex auditorio questions: the chair of the defence will invite the audience to ask questions ex auditorio at the end of the defence.

Trial lecture

15th of April, time: 10:15 am, room 1259 (Abels utsikt).

Elastocapillary mechanics of fibres

Main research findings 

Interactions between fluids and solids are common in biological and industrial processes. These situations are often essential but are notoriously difficult to understand and model. In my thesis, I employed a combination of theoretical, numerical, and experimental approaches to study such fluid-structure interactions.

Specifically, I investigated four different subjects:

  • The effect of surface softness on the outcomes of a droplet impact; for instance air bubble entrapment which is a crucial phenomenon for inkjet printing.
  • The influence of mechanical vibrations on the motion of droplets on a thin fiber; a consideration important for the development of technologies to harvest water from fog.
  • The mechanisms that enable an elastic sheet to levitate under vibrations; offering insights that could guide the development of soft robots navigating complex terrains.
  • The dynamics of contact between a flexible membrane and a solid surface; a process that notably arises in wafer bonding technologies used in the microelectronic industry.

In each instance, I have arrived at novel physical insights into the mechanisms of interaction between fluid flow and solid deformations, laying the foundations for future theoretical and applied research.

Adjudication committee

  • Professor Dominic Vella, University of Oxford 
  • Professor Camille Duprat, Ecole Polytechnique
  • Professor Mikael Mortensen, University of Oslo

Supervisors

Chair of defence

Head of Department Geir Dahl.

Host of the session

Professor Mikael Mortensen, University of Oslo

 

Organizer

Department of Mathematics
Published Mar. 27, 2024 9:01 AM - Last modified Apr. 24, 2024 9:56 AM