The Complex Fluids and Multiphase Transport Laboratory at Drexel University focuses on advancing fundamental thermal-fluid, interface, and data sciences, and applying them to enable sustainable manufacturing, effective thermal management solutions, and efficient energy conversion and storage systems. In this talk, I will summarize our combined use of multi-scale modeling, experimental, and data-driven approaches in understanding transport processes in multiphase systems with fluid flow, heat and mass transfer, phase change, and pattern formation. Examples in capillary-driven assembly of inkjet-printed colloidal drops for printable electronics and biofabrication, spatiotemporally-resolved air layer dynamics upon drop impact on self-cleaning surfaces, and reduced-order modeling of bubble dynamics in boiling heat transfer will be discussed, aiming to discover new physical insights to previously little-known thermal-fluid behaviors and to enable more efficient energy solutions and sustainable manufacturing processes.
Dr. Ying Sun is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics at Drexel University. Since July 2019, she has been serving as the Program Director of the Thermal Transport Processes Program at the National Science Foundation. Dr. Sun’s research interests include multiphase flows and heat/mass transfer, complex fluids and interfacial phenomena, machine learning and data-driven methods, and multi-scale modeling with applications in energy systems and advanced manufacturing. Her lab is funded by the NSF, DOE, ARPA-E, AFOSR, DoEd, PA Commonwealth, EPRI, ACS PRF, Ben Franklin Technology Partners, and industry. Dr. Sun is an ASME Fellow and a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, AFOSR Summer Faculty Fellowship, French CNRS Visiting Professorship, and Drexel College of Engineering Research Achievement Award. She serves as an Associate Editor for ASME Journal of Electrochemical Energy Conversion and Storage, and was an ELATE Leadership Fellow and a visiting professor at Princeton University, Ecole Polytechnique, and Tsinghua University. Dr. Sun has authored over 60 referred journal articles, delivered over 80 invited talks, and been awarded two US patents. She obtained her B.Eng. degree from Thermal Engineering at Tsinghua University, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering both from University of Iowa.
