Browsing by Author "Münch, Andreas"
Now showing 1 - 20 of 37
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- ItemAnisotropic surface energy formulations and their effect on stability of a growing thin film(Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2012) Korzec, Maciek D.; Münch, Andreas; Wagner, BarbaraIn this paper we revisit models for the description of the evolution of crystalline films with anisotropic surface energies. We prove equivalences of symmetry properties of anisotropic surface energy models commonly used in the literature. Then we systematically develop a framework for the derivation of surface diffusion models for the self-assembly of quantum dots during Stranski-Krastanov growth that include surface energies also with large anisotropy as well as the effect of wetting energy, elastic energy and a randomly perturbed atomic deposition flux. A linear stability analysis for the resulting sixth-order semilinear evolution equation for the thin film surface shows that that the new model allows for large anisotropy and gives rise to the formation of anisotropic quantum dots. The nonlinear three-dimensional evolution is investigated via numerical solutions. These suggest that increasing anisotropy stabilizes the faceted surfaces and may lead to a dramatic slow-down of the coarsening of the dots.
- ItemAnisotropy in wavelet based phase field models(Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2014) Korzec, Maciek; Münch, Andreas; Süli, Endre; Wagner, BarbaraAnisotropy is an essential feature of phase-field models, in particular when describing the evolution of microstructures in solids. The symmetries of the crystalline phases are reflected in the interfacial energy by introducing corresponding directional dependencies in the gradient energy coefficients, which multiply the highest order derivative in the phase-field model. This paper instead considers an alternative approach, where the anisotropic gradient energy terms are replaced by a wavelet analogue that is intrinsically anisotropic and linear. In our studies we focus on the classical coupled temperature
- ItemApparent slip for an upper convected Maxwell fluid(Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2016) Münch, Andreas; Wagner, Barbara; Cook, L. Pamela; Braun, Richard R.In this study the flow field of a nonlocal, diffusive upper convected Maxwell (UCM) fluid with a polymer in a solvent undergoing shearing motion is investigated for pressure driven planar channel flow and the free boundary problem of a liquid layer on a solid substrate. For large ratios of the zero shear polymer viscosity to the solvent viscosity, it is shown that channel flows exhibit boundary layers at the channel walls. In addition, for increasing stress diffusion the flow field away from the boundary layers undergoes a transition from a parabolic to a plug flow. Using experimental data for the wormlike micelle solutions CTAB/NaSal and CPyCl/NaSal, it is shown that the analytic solution of the governing equations predicts these signatures of the velocity profiles. Corresponding flow structures and transitions are found for the free boundary problem of a thin layer sheared along a solid substrate. Matched asymptotic expansions are used to first derive sharp-interface models describing the bulk flow with expressions for an apparent slip for the boundary conditions, obtained by matching to the flow in the boundary layers. For a thin film geometry several asymptotic regimes are identified in terms of the order of magnitude of the stress diffusion, and corresponding new thin film models with a slip boundary condition are derived.
- ItemAsymptotic study of the electric double layer at the interface of a polyelectrolyte gel and solvent bath(Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2020) Hennessy, Matthew G.; Celora, Giulia L.; Münch, Andreas; Waters, Sarah L.; Wagner, BarbaraAn asymptotic framework is developed to study electric double layers that form at the inter-face between a solvent bath and a polyelectrolyte gel that can undergo phase separation. The kinetic model for the gel accounts for the finite strain of polyelectrolyte chains, free energy ofinternal interfaces, and Stefan?Maxwell diffusion. By assuming that the thickness of the doublelayer is small compared to the typical size of the gel, matched asymptotic expansions are used toderive electroneutral models with consistent jump conditions across the gel-bath interface in two-dimensional plane-strain as well as fully three-dimensional settings. The asymptotic frameworkis then applied to cylindrical gels that undergo volume phase transitions. The analysis indicatesthat Maxwell stresses are responsible for generating large compressive hoop stresses in the double layer of the gel when it is in the collapsed state, potentially leading to localised mechanicalinstabilities that cannot occur when the gel is in the swollen state. When the energy cost of in-ternal interfaces is sufficiently weak, a sharp transition between electrically neutral and chargedregions of the gel can occur. This transition truncates the double layer and causes it to have finitethickness. Moreover, phase separation within the double layer can occur. Both of these featuresare suppressed if the energy cost of internal interfaces is sufficiently high. Thus, interfacial freeenergy plays a critical role in controlling the structure of the double layer in the gel.
- ItemControlled topological transitions in thin film phase separation(Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2013) Hennessy, Mathew G.; Burlakov, Victor M.; Münch, Andreas; Wagner, Barbara; Goriely, AlainIn this paper the evolution of a binary mixture in a thin-film geometry with a wall at the top and bottom is considered. Bringing the mixture into its miscibility gap so that no spinodal decomposition occurs in the bulk, a slight energetic bias of the walls towards each one of the constituents ensures the nucleation of thin boundary layers that grow until the constituents have moved into one of the two layers. These layers are separated by an interfacial region, where the composition changes rapidly. Conditions that ensure the separation into two layers with a thin interfacial region are investigated based on a phase-field model and using matched asymptotic expansions a corresponding sharp-interface problem for the location of the interface is established. It is then argued that a thus created two-layer system is not at its energetic minimum but destabilizes into a controlled self-replicating pattern of trapezoidal vertical stripes by minimizing the interfacial energy between the phases while conserving their area. A quantitative analysis of this mechanism is carried out via a new thin-film model for the free interfaces, which is derived asymptotically from the sharp-interface model.
- ItemGradient structures for flows of concentrated suspensions(Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2018) Peschka, Dirk; Thomas, Marita; Ahnert, Tobias; Münch, Andreas; Wagner, BarbaraIn this work we investigate a two-phase model for concentrated suspensions. We construct a PDE formulation using a gradient flow structure featuring dissipative coupling between fluid and solid phase as well as different driving forces. Our construction is based on the concept of flow maps that also allows it to account for flows in moving domains with free boundaries. The major difference compared to similar existing approaches is the incorporation of a non-smooth twohomogeneous term to the dissipation potential, which creates a normal pressure even for pure shear flows.
- ItemImpact of interfacial slip on the stability of liquid two-layer polymer films(Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2012) Jachalski, Sebastian; Peschka, Dirk; Münch, Andreas; Wagner, BarbaraIn this study systems of coupled thin-film models for two immiscible liquid polymer layers on a solid substrate that account for interfacial slip and intermolecular forces are derived. On the scale of tens to hundred nanometers such two-layer systems are susceptable to instability and may rupture and dewet. The stability of the two-layer system and its significant dependence on the order of magnitude of slip is investigated via these thin-film models. With no-slip at both, the liquid-liquid and liquid-solid interface and polymer layers of comparable thickness, the dispersion relation typically shows two local maxima, one in the long-wave regime and the other at moderate wavenumbers. The former is associated with perturbations that mainly affect the gas-liquid interface and the latter with higher relative perturbation amplitudes at the liquid-liquid interface. Slip at the liquid-liquid interface generally favors the former perturbations. However, when the liquid-liquid and the liquidsolid interface exhibit large slip, the maxima shift to small wavenumbers for increasing slip and hence may significantly change the spinodal patterns.
- ItemImpact of slippage on the morphology and stability of a dewetting rim(Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2010) Münch, Andreas; Wagner, BarbaraIn this study lubrication theory is used to describe the stability and morphology of the rim that forms as a thin polymer film dewets from a hydrophobized silicon wafer. Thin film equations are derived from the governing hydrodynamic equations for the polymer to enable the systematic mathematical and numerical analysis of the properties of the solutions for different regimes of slippage and for a range of time scales. Dewetting rates and the cross sectional profiles of the evolving rims are derived for these models and compared to experimental results. Experiments also show that the rim is typically unstable in the spanwise direction and develops thicker and thinner parts that may grow into ``fingers''. Linear stability analysis as well as nonlinear numerical solutions are presented to investigate shape and growth rate of the rim instability. It is demonstrated that the difference in morphology and the rate at which the instability develops can be directly attributed to the magnitude of slippage. Finally, a derivation is given for the dominant wavelength of the bulges along the unstable rim.
- ItemInfluence of slip on the Rayleigh-Plateau rim instability in dewetting viscous films(Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2013) Bäumchen, Oliver; Marquant, Ludovic; Blossey, Ralf; Münch, Andreas; Wagner, Barbara; Jacobs, KarinA dewetting viscous film develops a characteristic fluid rim at its receding edge due to mass conservation. In the course of the dewetting process the rim becomes unstable via an instability of Rayleigh-Plateau type. An important difference exists between this classic instability of a liquid column and the rim instability in the thin film as the growth of the rim is continuously fueled by the receding film. We explain how the development and macroscopic morphology of the rim instability are controlled by the slip of the film on the substrate. A single thin-film model captures quantitatively the characteristics of the evolution of the rim observed in our experiments.
- ItemInterface morphologies in liquid/liquid dewetting(Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2010) Kostourou, Konstantina; Peschka, Dirk; Münch, Andreas; Wagner, Barbara; Herminghaus, Stephan; Seemann, RalfThe dynamics and morphology of a liquid polystyrene (PS) film on the scale of a hundred nanometer dewetting from a liquid polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) film is investigated experimentally and theoretically. The polymers considered here are both below their entanglement lengths and have negligible elastic properties. A theoretical model based on viscous Newtonian flow for both polymers is set up from which a system of coupled lubrication equations is derived and solved numerically. A direct comparison of the numerical solution with the experimental findings for the characteristic signatures of the cross-sections of liquid/air and liquid/liquid phase boundaries of the dewetting rims as well as the dewetting rates is performed and discussed for various viscosity ratios of the PS and PMMA layers.
- ItemIntermediate-asymptotic structure of a dewetting rim with strong slip(Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2006) Evans, Peter L.; King, John R.; Münch, AndreasWhen a thin viscous liquid film dewets, it typically forms a rim which spreads outwards, leaving behind a growing dry region. We consider the dewetting behaviour of a film, when there is strong slip at a liquid-substrate interface. The film can be modelled by two coupled partial differential equations (PDEs) describing the film thickness and velocity. Using asymptotic methods, we describe the structure of the rim as it evolves in time, and the rate of dewetting, in the limit of large slip lengths. An inner region emerges, closest to the dewetted region, where surface tension is important; in an outer region, three subregions develop. This asymptotic description is compared with numerical solutions of the full system of PDEs.
- ItemA kinetic model of a polyelectrolyte gel undergoing phase separation(Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2020) Celora, Giulia L.; Hennessy, Matthew G.; Münch, Andreas; Wagner, Barbara; Waters, Sarah L.In this study we use non-equilibrium thermodynamics to systematically derive a phase-field model of a polyelectrolyte gel coupled to a thermodynamically consistent model for the salt solution surrounding the gel. The governing equations for the gel account for the free energy of the internal interfaces which form upon phase separation, as well as finite elasticity and multi-component transport. The fully time-dependent model describes the evolution of small changes in the mobile ion concentrations and follows their impact on the large-scale solvent flux and the emergence of long-time pattern formation in the gel. We observe a strong acceleration of the evolution of the free surface when the volume phase transition sets in, as well as the triggering of spinodal decomposition that leads to strong inhomogeneities in the lateral stresses, potentially leading to experimentally visible patterns.
- ItemLinear stability analysis of ta sharp-interface model for dewetting thin films(Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2007) King, John R.; Münch, Andreas; Wagner, BarbaraThe topic of this study concerns the stability of the three-phase contact-line of a dewetting thin liquid film on a hydrophobised substrate driven by van der Waals forces. The role of slippage in the emerging instability at the three-phase contact-line is studied by deriving a sharp-interface model for the dewetting thin film via matched asymptotic expansions. This allows for a derivation of travelling waves and their linear stability via eigenmode analysis. In contrast to the dispersion relations typically encountered for the finger-instabilty, where the dependence of the growth rate on the wave number is quadratic, here it is linear. Using the separation of time scales of the slowly growing rim of the dewetting film and time scale on which the contact line destabilises, the sharp-interface results are compared to earlier results for the full lubrication model and good agreement for the most unstable modes is obtained.
- ItemLocalized instabilities and spinodal decomposition in driven systems in the presence of elasticity(Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2017) Meca, Esteban; Münch, Andreas; Wagner, BarbaraWe study numerically and analytically the instabilities associated with phase separation in a solid layer on which an external material flux is imposed. The first instability is localized within a boundary layer at the exposed free surface by a process akin to spinodal decomposition. In the limiting static case, when there is no material flux, the coherent spinodal decomposition is recovered. In the present problem stability analysis of the time-dependent and non-uniform base states as well as numerical simulations of the full governing equations are used to establish the dependence of the wavelength and onset of the instability on parameter settings and its transient nature as the patterns eventually coarsen into a flat moving front. The second instability is related to the Mullins-Sekerka instability in the presence of elasticity and arises at the moving front between the two phases when the flux is reversed. Stability analyses of the full model and the corresponding sharp-interface model are carried out and compared. Our results demonstrate how interface and bulk instabilities can be analysed within the same framework which allows to identify and distinguish each of them clearly. The relevance for a detailed understanding of both instabilities and their interconnections in a realistic setting are demonstrated for a system of equations modelling the lithiation/delithiation processes within the context of Lithium ion batteries.
- ItemModels for the two-phase flow of concentrated suspensions(Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2014) Ahnert, Tobias; Münch, Andreas; Wagner, BarbaraA new two-phase model for concentrated suspensions is derived that incorporates a constitutive law combining the rheology for non-Brownian suspension and granular flow. The resulting model naturally exhibits a Bingham-type flow property. This property is investigated in detail for the simple geometry of plane Poiseuille flow, where an unyielded or jammed zone of finite width arises in the center of the channel. For the steady state of this problem, the governing equation are reduced to a boundary value problem for a system of ordinary differential equations and the dependence of its solutions are analyzed by using phase-space methods. For the general time-dependent case a new drift-flux model is derived for the first time using matched asymptotic expansions that take account of the boundary layers at the walls and the interface between the yielded and unyielded region. Using the drift-flux model, the behavior of the suspension flow, in particular the appearance and evolution of unyielded or jammed regions is then studied numerically for different choices of the parameters.
- ItemOn the Landau-Levich problem for non-Newtonian liquids(Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2007) Afanasiev, Konstantin; Münch, Andreas; Wagner, BarbaraIn this paper the drag-out problem for shear-thinning liquids at variable inclination angle is considered. For this free boundary problem dimension-reduced lubrication equations are derived for the most commonly used viscosity models, namely, the power-law, Ellis and Carreau model. For the resulting lubrication models a system of ordinary differential equation governing the steady state solutions is obtained. Phase plane analysis is used to characterize the type of possible steady state solutions and their dependence on the rheological parameters.
- ItemA phase-field model for solid-state dewetting and its sharp-interface limit(Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2014) Dziwnik, Marion; Münch, Andreas; Wagner, BarbaraWe propose a phase field model for solid state dewetting in form of a Cahn-Hilliard equation with weakly anisotropic surface energy and a degenerate mobility together with a free boundary condition at the film-substrate contact line. We derive the corresponding sharp interface limit via matched asymptotic analysis involving multiple inner layers. The resulting sharp interface model is consistent with the pure surface diffusion model. In addition, we show that the natural boundary conditions, as indicated from the first variation of the total free energy, imply a contact angle condition for the dewetting front, which, in the isotropic case, is consistent with the well-known Young's equation
- ItemPropagating topological transformations in thin immiscible bilayer films(Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2013) Hennessy, Mathew G.; Burlakov, Victor M.; Münch, Andreas; Wagner, Barbara; Goriely, AlainA physical mechanism for the topological transformation of a two-layer system confined by two substrates is proposed. Initially the two horizontal layers, A and B, are on top of each other, but upon a sufficiently large disturbance, they can rearrange themselves through a spontaneously propagating sectioning to create a sequence of vertical alternating domains ABABAB. This generic topological transformation could be used to control the morphology of fabricated nanocomposites by first creating metastable layered structures and then triggering their transformation. The generality is underscored by formulating conditions for this topological transformation in terms of the interface energies between phases and substrates. The theoretical estimate for the width of the domains is confirmed by simulations of a phase-field model and its thin-film/sharp-interface approximation.
- ItemSelf-consistent field theory for a polymer brush. Part I: Asymptotic analysis in the strong-stretching limit(Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2019) Münch, Andreas; Wagner, BarbaraIn this study we consider the self-consistent field theory for a dry, in- compressible polymer brush, densely grafted on a substrate, describing the average segment density of a polymer in terms of an effective chemical potential for the interaction between the segments of the polymer chain. We present a systematic singular perturbation analysis of the self-consistent field theory in the strong-stretching limit, when the length scale of the ratio of the radius of gyration of the polymer chain to the extension of the brush from the substrate vanishes. Our analysis yields, for the first time, an approximation for the average segment density that is correct to leading order in the outer scaling and resolves the boundary layer singularity at the end of the polymer brush in the strong-stretching limit. We also show that in this limit our analytical results agree increasingly well with our numerical solutions to the full model equations comprising the self-consistent field theory.
- ItemSelf-consistent field theory for a polymer brush. Part II: The effective chemical potential(Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2019) Münch, Andreas; Wagner, BarbaraThe most successful mean-field model to describe the collective behaviour of the large class of macromolecular polymers is the self-consistent field theory (SCFT). Still, even for the simple system of a grafted dry polymer brush, the mean-field equations have to be solved numerically. As one of very few alternatives that offer some analytical tractability the strong-stretching theory (SST) has led to explicit expressions for the effective chemical potential and consequently the free energy to promote an understanding of the underlying physics. Yet, a direct derivation of these analytical results from the SCFT model is still outstanding. In this study we present a systematic asymptotic theory based on matched asymtptotic expansions to obtain the effective chemical potential from the SCFT model for a dry polymer brush for large but finite stretching.