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Time and place: , Niels Henrik Abels hus, 9th floor

Abstract: Many constructions have been proposed to attain adaptivity within the IGA framework (HB-, T-, LR-splines among others).
The idea of all approaches is to break the tensor product structure of the space in order to allow a spatially varying resolution.
Here we present an approach for adaptivity in IGA aimed at solving PDEs with preconditioned Krylov methods. 
All the main ingredients of this work are already known, but their combination looks promising for the 
development of isogeometric solvers with a good balance of flexibility and computational efficiency.

Hybrid format via Zoom possible on demand (contact timokoch at uio.no)

Time and place: , Niels Henrik Abels hus, 9th floor

Abstract: Dynamic Contact Lines are moving lines at which two fluids (eg air and water) and a solid meet. They offer longstanding paradoxes in the theory of continuum mechanics. I describe some aspects of their computation: a curtain-coating numerical experiment, a withdrawing plate, and a droplet between parallel plates.  All computations are done using Volume-Of-Fluid methods on octree grids, and comparisons with phase field and molecular dynamics approaches performed in collaboration with KTH, Stockholm.

Hybrid format via Zoom possible on demand (contact timokoch at uio.no)

Time and place: , Niels Henrik Abels hus, 9th floor

Abstract: I present the electrophoretic transport phenomenon of spherical soft particles. Electrophoresis is one of the important electrokinetic techniques, which is often used to characterize, and separation of colloids.  It is commonly used as a separation technique and often used in the separation of DNA, protein molecules, serum to identify paraproteins, etc. Electrophoretic transport phenomenon is also used to understand the electric properties of several bioparticles including virus, bacteria, humic cells and macromolecules and may be used to understand the transport of cargo vessel in treatments of various diseases, e.g., cancer, inflammation, multiple myeloma, rental pathological disorders and macroglobulinemia, etc. Thus, the proper understanding of the electrophoretic transport of soft particles is important to understand the characteristics features of various bio-colloids and macromolecules, which can be viewed as soft particles. In this talk, I will present some of the existing simplified models for electrophoretic transport of soft particles. In addition, I have further extended it for the real situation, considering the effect of pH-dependent charge densities of the inner core and peripheral soft polymeric layer, effect of hydrodynamic slip length of the hydrophobic core surface, etc. 

Hybrid format via Zoom possible on demand (contact timokoch at uio.no)

Time and place: , Niels Henrik Abels hus, 9th floor

I present a simple, efficient, three dimensional, time dependent model for bone regeneration in the presence of porous scaffolds to bridge critical size bone defects. The essential processes are an interplay between the mechanical and biological environment which we model by a coupled system of PDEs and ODEs. The mechanical environment is represented by a linear elastic equation and the biological environment through reaction-diffusion equations as well as as logistic ODEs, modelling signalling molecules and cells/bone respectively. Material properties are incorporated using homogenized quantities not resolving any scaffold microstructure. This makes the model efficient in computations, thus suitable as a forward equation in optimization algorithms and opening up the possibility of patient specific scaffold design and this model is used as a PDE constraint for the optimization of polymer scaffold porosities. Our numerical findings show that our model for example recovers and quantifies clinically relevant stress shielding effects that appear in vivo due to external fixation of the scaffold at the defect site.

This talk is part of the Mechanics Lunch Seminar series. Bring-your-own-lunch and lots of questions.

Time and place: , Niels Henrik Abels hus, 9th floor

Abstract: T cell activation is initiated upon T cell receptor (TCR) binding to cognate peptide-MHC complexes on the surface of antigen presenting cells (APCs). This initiates the formation of the immunological synapse – a specialized hub for bidirectional membrane transfer between T cells and APCs which is essential for processes such as downregulation of triggered TCR and T cell-mediated stimulation of B cells. Here, I will present some recent advancements in our understanding of how this is regulated.

This talk is part of the Mechanics Lunch Seminar series. Bring-your-own-lunch and lots of questions. Hybrid format via Zoom possible on demand (contact timokoch at uio.no)

Time and place: , Niels Henrik Abels hus, 9th floor

Abstract: What links a baby’s first breath to adhesive debonding, enhanced oil recovery, filtration or multiphase microfluidics? These processes all involve two-phase flows in rigid or elastic confined vessels and are often prone to interfacial instabilities. The canonical viscous fingering instability, which occurs when air displaces a viscous fluid in the narrow gap between two parallel plates, offers a versatile testbed for such phenomena. In this talk, I will use both experiments and numerical simulations of depth-averaged models to explore several aspects of bubble dynamics in Hele-Shaw cells. I will first show how the onset of fingering can be suppressed when replacing the upper plate of the vessel with an elastic sheet. Interfacial flows in narrow gaps can also exhibit considerable disorder, but they are rarely investigated from a dynamical systems’ perspective. I will show how compliance can promote rich multiplicity of front propagation modes in a channel before turning to bubble propagation in a rigid channel with a depth perturbation. There I will explore how the bubble’s organised transient dynamics is orchestrated by weakly-unstable steady propagation modes, and how its long-term behaviour may be practically unpredictable.

This talk is part of the Mechanics Lunch Seminar series. Bring-your-own-lunch and lots of questions. Hybrid format via Zoom possible on demand (contact timokoch at uio.no)

Time and place: , Niels Henrik Abels hus, 9th floor

Abstract: A random, labyrinthine pattern emerges during slow drainage of a granular-fluid system in two- dimensional confinement. Compacted grains are pushed ahead of the fluid-air interface, which becomes unstable due to a competition between capillary forces and the frictional stress mobilized by grain-grain contact networks. We reproduce the pattern formation process in numerical simulations and present an analytical treatment that predicts the characteristic length scale of the labyrinth structure. The pattern length scale decreases with increasing volume fraction of grains in the system and increases with the system thickness. By tilting the model, aligned finger structures, with a characteristic width, emerge. A transition from vertical to horizontal alignment of the finger structures is observed as the tilting angle and the granular density are varied. The dynamics is reproduced in simulations. We also show how the system may explain patterns observed in nature, created during the early stages of a dike formation.

This talk is part of the Mechanics Lunch Seminar series. Bring-your-own-lunch and lots of questions. Hybrid format via Zoom possible on demand (contact timokoch at uio.no)

Time and place: , Niels Henrik Abels hus, 9th floor + Zoom

Abstract: Because of their huge compressibility difference with their surrounding media, air bubbles in water have a special relationship with acoustic waves: they are sub-wavelength resonators. In this presentation, I will show that this characteristic has great implications for both the surrounding fluid, because of the steady streaming effect, but also for the acoustic waves.

This talk is part of the Mechanics Lunch Seminar series. Bring-your-own-lunch and lots of questions.

Time and place: , Niels Henrik Abels hus, 9th floor + Zoom

This talk is part of the Mechanics Lunch Seminar series. Bring-your-own-lunch and lots of questions.

Time and place: , Niels Henrik Abels hus, 9th floor + Zoom

Abstract: This talk is about the non-integer (fractional) derivative, its mathematical formulation by Abel in 1823, and present-day applications in modeling power-law behavior. These applications are in acoustics of complex media like tissue and sediments as well as in rheology, turbulence, and dielectrics. It will build on my book “Waves with Power-Law Attenuation”, Springer, 2019.

The talk will be streamed online. Please contact "timokoch at uio.no" for the Zoom link. This talk is part of the Mechanics Lunch Seminar series. Bring-your-own-lunch and lots of questions.

Time and place: , Zoom + Niels Henrik Abels hus, 9th floor

Abstract: Gravitational settling of a droplet in air onto a soft substrate is a ubiquitous event relevant to many natural processes and engineering applications. We study this phenomenon by developing a three-phase lubrication model of droplet settling onto a solid substrate coated by a thin, soft compressible layer of elastic material. By combining scaling analysis, analytical methods and numerical simulations we elucidate how the resulting droplet dynamics is affected by the soft layer. We discuss extensions to droplet settlings onto thin viscous liquid films and elastic sheets. Our results provide new insight into the coupled interactions between droplets and solids coated by a thin film of a soft material.

Talk can be followed online on Zoom as well as in person. Please contact "timokoch at uio.no" for the Zoom link. This talk is part of the Mechanics Lunch Seminar series. Bring-your-own-lunch and lots of questions.

Time and place: , Zoom

Abstract: We investigate the simulation of a rising bubble and a stationary droplet interaction to gain a better understanding of the rising dynamics and the morphology changing of bubble-droplet aggregate. A detailed study is conducted on the interaction process under different-size bubbles with various combinations of spreading factors. The current simulation framework consists of the conservative phase-field Lattice Boltzmann equation (LBE) for interface tracking and the velocity-pressure LBE for hydrodynamics. We simulate the contact line dynamics to confirm the method's accuracy. We further investigate the morphology changing of two contact droplets under different combinations of spreading factors and depict the final morphologies in a diagram. The separated, partially engulfed and complete engulfed morphologies can be replicated by systematically altering the sign of the spreading factors. The rising bubble and droplet interaction is simulated based on different final morphologies by adding a body force. The results show that the aggregate with double emulsion morphology can avoid distortion and maintain a greater terminal velocity than the aggregate with partially engulfed morphology.

Talk is online on Zoom. Please contact "timokoch at uio.no" for the Zoom link. This talk is part of the Mechanics Lunch Seminar series. Bring-your-own-lunch and lots of questions.

Time and place: , Niels Henrik Abels hus, 9th floor, seminar room 919

Abstract: The fungal kingdom is one of the most species-rich organismal groups, containing up to 6 million species worldwide with a large diversity of ecosystem functions. Multicellularity has evolved independently in fungi, and over time many different growth forms and structures have originated. I will present some basics on fungal growth and the formation of complex multicellular structures.

Online participation is possible too. Please contact "timokoch at uio.no" for the Zoom link. This talk is part of the Mechanics Lunch Seminar series. Bring-your-own-lunch and lots of questions.

Time and place: , Niels Henrik Abels hus, 9th floor, seminar room 919

Abstract: Transport and mixing in multiphase flow through porous media plays a key role in a range of biological, geological, and engineered systems. Here, we use numerical simulations to investigate the effect of intermittent multiphase flow on fluid stretching and folding, a fundamental mechanism driving solute mixing and reaction in porous media. We show that, in contrast to steady single-phase flows, the concurrent flow of two immiscible phases induces chaotic mixing, characterized by exponential stretching in the pore space. The stretching rate is found to decay with increasing capillary number, implying that the increasing flow intermittency observed at lower capillary numbers enhances the mixing efficiency. We propose a mechanistic model to link the basic multiphase flow properties to the chaotic mixing rate, opening new perspectives to understand mixing and reaction in multiphase porous media flows. The results presented here form part of the background for the recently started RCN-funded project M4: Mixing in Multiphase flow through Microporous Media, which will also be introduced.

This talk is part of the Mechanics Lunch Seminar series. Bring-your-own-lunch and lots of questions.

Time and place: , Niels Henrik Abels hus, 9th floor, seminar room 919

Abstract:  The cerebral circulation must ensure continuous blood perfusion of the brain which is the biggest oxygen consumer in the human body. It must also provide mechanisms for adaptability to changing oxygen demand as well as resilience to local blockages. We will look at such mechanisms at the level of the microcirculation where the mechanics of blood flow is dominated by red blood cells. We will find that red blood cells do not only play the role of oxygen carriers, but that they are an important element of blood flow regulation itself. To this end, we will compare results from in vitro studies in microfluidic chips to theoretical and computational models and to in vivo data from mice. We will derive local auto-regulation mechanisms for blood flow and will study how local modifications in the vascular network can modify the global hematocrit distribution. These results will emphasize the relevance of red blood cell mechanics and microvascular network geometry in cerebral blood perfusion.

This talk is part of the Mechanics Lunch Seminar series. Bring-your-own-lunch and lots of questions.

Time and place: , Niels Henrik Abels hus, 9th floor, seminar room 919

Abstract:  Swimming bacteria, growing cell tissues, molecular motors, and microtubule systems confined to a substrate are examples of active matter films that exhibit long-range nematic (orientational) order. Intrinsic activity in these systems builds mechanical stresses that tend to destroy local nematic order through topological defects, which act as sources of persistent active flows.  The overall evolution and functionality of biological matter is greatly influenced by these orientational defects. Yet, their formation and dynamics are driven by a complex interplay between topological singularities in the nematic order and active flow instabilities, and this is not completely understood. 

Click title to continue reading abstract...

Time and place: , Niels Henrik Abels hus, 9th floor, seminar room 919

Abstract:  Exchange processes across a porous-medium free-flow interface occur in a wide range of environmental, technical, and bio-mechanical systems.  In the course of these processes, flow dynamics in the porous domain and in the free-flow domain exhibit strong coupling, often controlled by mechanisms at the common interfaces.  Such processes need to be analyzed on small scales and new scale-bridging modeling concepts need to be developed for an accurate description also on larger scales (REV scale). Recent developments within the Collaborative Research Center "Interface-Driven Multi-Field Processes in Porous Media – Flow, Transport and Deformation" and the Cluster of Excellence SimTech at the University Stuttgart regarding such aspects for coupled free-flow and porous-medium flow systems will be presented in this talk.

This talk is part of the Mechanics Lunch Seminar series. Bring-your-own-lunch and lots of questions.

Time and place: , Niels Henrik Abels hus, 9th floor, seminar room 919

Abstract:  We present a second-order numerical scheme to compute capillary bridges between arbitrary solids by minimizing the total energy of all interfaces. From a theoretical point of view, this approach can be interpreted as the computation of generalized minimal surfaces using a Newton-scheme utilizing the shape Hessian. In particular, we give an explicit representation of the shape Hessian for functionals on shells involving the normal vector without reverting back to a volume formulation. From an algorithmic perspective, we combine a resolved interface via a triangulated surface for the liquid with a level-set description for the constraints stemming from the arbitrary geometry. The actual shape of the capillary bridge is then computed via finite elements provided by the FEniCS environment, minimizing the shape derivative of the total interface energy.

This talk is part of the Mechanics Lunch Seminar series. Bring-your-own-lunch and lots of questions.

Time and place: , Niels Henrik Abels hus, 9th floor, seminar room 919

Abstract:  After a broad overview of the activities of MecaWet group at PMMH, the presentation will focus on the “dry side” of MecaWet.

Drawing a flat map of the Earth is fundamentally challenging as continents unavoidably end up distorted. Reciprocally, complex natural shapes such as the delicate shape of Orchidea petals emanate from differential growth. From an engineering point of view, similar shape changes can be obtained when flat patches embedded with a network of channels are inflated. We will discuss two opposite strategies involving stretchable elastomers or, conversely, stiff fabrics. Can we program the resulting 3D shapes? How robust are such inflated structures?

This talk is part of the Mechanics Lunch Seminar series. Bring-your-own-lunch and lots of questions.

Time and place: , Niels Henrik Abels hus, 9th floor, seminar room 919

Abstract: Mixed-dimensional partial differential equations (PDEs) are equations coupling unknown fields defined over domains of differing topological dimensions. Such mixed-dimensional PDEs naturally arise in a wide range of fields including geology, biomedicine, and fracture mechanics. We introduce an automated framework dedicated to mixed-dimensional problems as part of the FEniCS library. This talk gives an overview of the abstractions and algorithms involved. The introduced tools will be illustrated by concrete examples of applications in biomedicine (see below for more detailed context).

This talk is part of the Mechanics Lunch Seminar series. Bring-your-own-lunch and lots of questions.

Time and place: , Niels Henrik Abels hus, 12th floor, Abels utsikt

Abstract: The concept of symmetry breaking is well-known in physics, for instance in condensed matter, where it results from interactions in a many-body system — e.g., phase transition in a spin system. Yet, as physicists, we tend not to think of the patterned structures seen in living, many-body systems in terms of broken symmetries. Whether it is the spacing of knuckles on our hand, the collective alignment of hairs on an insect wing, or more globally the transformation of a homogeneous, isotropic embryo into a developed organism, symmetry breaking abounds in biology. What new insights can a physicist bring to understand the origin of these complex phenomena? (Click title to read full abstract below...)

Time and place: , Niels Henrik Abels hus, 9th floor, seminar room 919

Abstract: Elimination of substances from the brain is believed to occur by a combination of convection and diffusion. In previous work, transport along perivascular spaces around blood vessels have been explicitly meshed and modeled, and also 1D-3D models have been used to model the interaction between blood and brain tissue. A problem with both these approaches is that it requires spatial information of all blood vessels within the brain and in addition may result in a computationally expensive system to solve. In this talk, I will introduce a homogenized model of transport in the brain, also taking into account transfer between different compartments (like blood and brain tissue) within the brain. Fluid flow in and between compartments are modeled with the mulitple-porosity elasticity theory (MPET), while transport within and between compartments are modeled with convection-diffusion equations. I will further show preliminary results from our model and compare with experimental data obtained in a glioma (brain tumor) patient, where transport between blood and brain is typically altered.

This talk is part of the Mechanics Lunch Seminar series. Bring-your-own-lunch and lots of questions.

Time and place: , Niels Henrik Abels hus, 9th floor, seminar room 919

Abstract: My soft matter research group investigates the autonomous transformation of phospholipid agglomerates into membrane compartments through a sequence of topological changes on solid interfaces. This process is initiated by contact and wetting of artificially created as well as natural surfaces by the lipids, and proceeds via a network of interconnected lipid nanotubes to produce nearly uniform lipid bilayer compartments. Under minimal assumptions it is conceivable that such process could have occurred on the early Earth, where the autonomous formation of simple membrane compartments is presumed to have enabled encapsulation of nucleotides and prebiotic chemistry precursors. According to the currently accepted “bulk hypothesis”, such compartments have spontaneously formed under moderate environmental conditions from lipids suspended in bulk aqueous medium. Only very recently, surfaces have emerged as potential supporting structures for the self-assembly of prebiotic compartments. In my talk, I will report on new evidence for the involvement of surfaces in protocell nucleation and development. The talk will highlight the implications of the new findings for our understanding of possible origin of life processes, and argue that materials properties-driven autonomous processes on solid interfaces might have greater role in the development of life than currently considered.

Time and place: , Niels Henrik Abels hus, 9th floor, seminar room 919

Abstract: It is known that a sessile drop subject to a forced vibration will vibrate in different shapes depending on the frequency of the forcing, the drop’s liquid properties and the liquid/solid/gas system. So the question then becomes, what can these vibrating drops help us understand? Here we find that we can use the motion of these drops to understand the constitutive law relating the drop’s apparent dynamic contact angle to its contact line velocity. We find we are able to extract mobility parameters like those described by the Davis-Hocking model, and that mobility parameters extracted in this fashion can be used in simulations of drop-drop coalescence to accurately predict post-coalescence dynamics.

This talk is part of the Mechanics Lunch Seminar series. That means 20min talks plus discussion in an informal setting and bring-your-own-lunch.

Time and place: , Zoom

Abstract: Efficient and parameter robust solvers for multiscale/multiphysics systems, where the coupling is enforced by the Lagrange multipliers, rely on operators in fractional Sobolev spaces defined over the interface. Arguably, this feature is not unexpected as there is explicit coupling/an interfacial variable in the system. However, in this talk we show that even for coupled problems free of Lagrange multipliers the fractional operators are a crucial component for constructing robust preconditioners. Stokes-Darcy/Biot systems will be discussed.

This talk is part of the Mechanics Lunch Seminar series. That means 20min talks plus discussion in an informal setting.

Zoom: To obtain the Zoom meeting details please contact Timo Koch (timokoch at math.uio.no).