Fun with Water: Freezing Bubbles, Jumping Droplets, and Building Trees
MIE Department Seminar
November 5, 2019
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Fun with Water: Freezing Bubbles, Jumping Droplets, and Building Trees
Presenter: Jonathan Boreyko, Assistant Professor, Virginia Tech
Abstract:
Nature displays incredible feats of fluid mechanics that have much to teach us. Here, we explore three different kinds of nature-inspired fluid phenomena. First, we show how the beauty of freezing bubbles can teach us how to freeze water faster. Second, we demonstrate that jumping-droplet condensation causes diseased wheat plants to “sneeze” pathogens to the surrounding crop. Finally, we show how synthetic trees are capable of passively pumping water against gravity on the same scale as natural trees.
Bio:
Jonathan Boreyko is an Assistant Professor at Virginia Tech in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Dr. Boreyko received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Duke University followed by a postdoc at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. His research lies at the intersection of fluid mechanics, phase-change heat transfer, and materials science and has been covered by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Science Magazine, NPR, and Discovery Channel Canada. He has published 42 papers and 3 patents, which have been cited more than 2,400 times to date.
Recent awards received by Dr. Boreyko include the NSF CAREER Award, the Air Force YIP Award, the Dean’s Award for Outstanding New Assistant Professor, and the ASME ICNMM Outstanding Early Career Award.
Host: Dr. Constantine Megaridis
Date posted
Sep 25, 2019
Date updated
Oct 15, 2019