Postgraduate studentship: Modelling the contact line dynamics of an evaporating drop

Applications are invited for a postgraduate studentship to work on Modelling the contact line dynamics of an evaporating drop under the supervision of Dr Jim Oliver, Dr Dominic Vella and Dr Jonathan Whiteley. This DPhil studentship will start on 1 October 2012, and will be based at the Oxford Centre for Collaborative Applied Mathematics (OCCAM).

OCCAM, established with substantial funding from KAUST GRP, is part of the Mathematical Institute at the University of Oxford. OCCAM is engaged in a wide range of applied and computational mathematics projects in collaboration with scientists from other disciplines. The portfolio is organised under the broad headings of Methodologies (M), Resources, Energy and Environment (REE), Biosciences and Bioengineering (BB), and Materials Science and Engineering (MSE). For more information about OCCAM, see http://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/occam.

The evaporation of a liquid drop on a substrate is of practical importance in numerous geophysical, biomedical and industrial applications including the water cycle, DNA mapping and gene-expression analysis, the manufacturing of semiconductor and micro-fluidic devices, cooling, coating and patterning. In this project, an evaporating liquid drop will be modelled as a free boundary problem, with the governing PDE and boundary conditions derived using conservation of mass, momentum and energy. Singularities in the resulting system of PDEs lend themselves to investigation by using asymptotic methods. The main goal of the asymptotic analysis will be to provide an understanding of the evaporation of a thick drop in which we do not make the assumption of a small contact angle with the surface, as made in previous work. The insight provided by this analysis will be verified through both numerical simulation and data from experimental collaborators. 

This studentship is attached to Jesus College.

This project is one of three on offer from OCCAM. The funding situation is complex because the studentships come from two sources. One studentship is funded by the University of Oxford, is open to students of all nationalities, and covers full stipend (currently £13,590) and College and University fees at the international rate. The remaining two studentships are fully funded by the EPSRC and are restricted to UK/EU students only (eligible non UK students will receive a fees-only award). We will allocate the studentships to the projects after the interviews, with the aim of providing full funding for all three of the students, if this is possible.

These studentships fall outside the University’s Gathered Field process. Applications should be made online at www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/postgraduate_courses and should include a CV, covering letter, three references and a transcript of your undergraduate degree. If you are unable to apply online, you can request a paper form from https://uni-of-oxford.custhelp.com/app/ask/.

Applications must arrive by the end of the day on Thursday 9 February 2012. Please quote the correct reference BK/11/22 in your covering letter. References can also be sent directly to Margaret Sloper (email graduate [dot] studies [-at-] maths [dot] ox [dot] ac [dot] uk) by the closing date. For further details of the projects, including the application process, please see:

www.maths.ox.ac.uk/notices/vacancies

Email: graduate [dot] studies [-at-] maths [dot] ox [dot] ac [dot] uk

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