Fluid seminar: Bert VANDEREYDT

 
Many important macroscopic problems are controlled by what happens at interfaces. In systems involving cells, bubbles, and liquids, interfacial transport and adhesion often end up setting fouling, throughput, and stability. In this talk, I will cover two examples from my PhD where we tried to address interfacial problems through functional surfaces. First, I will discuss bubble-driven cell detachment, where we show that electrochemically generated bubbles can remove adhered cells through the shear flow created beneath departing bubbles, without relying on biocide generation and while maintaining high cell viability. Second, I will present our aerophilic debubbling work, where porous aerophilic membranes placed at liquid interfaces evacuate bubbles on the millisecond timescale. I will show how this process transitions across different physical regimes, and how permeability, viscosity, and bubble size set the limits of bubble removal.