The join button will be published 30 minutes before the seminar starts (login required).
In this talk, we will explore three flow configurations that illustrate the behaviour of slow-moving viscous fluids in confined geometries: viscous gravity currents, fracturing of shear-thinning fluids in a Hele-Shaw cell, and rectangular channel flows of non-Newtonian fluids. We will first develop simple mathematical models to describe each setup, and then we will compare the theoretical predictions from these models with laboratory experiments. As is often the case, we will see that even models that are grounded in solid physical principles often fail to accurately predict the real-world flow behaviour. Our aim is to identify the primary physical mechanisms absent from the model using laboratory experiments. We will then refine the mathematical models and see whether better agreement between theory and experiment can be achieved.
Further Information
Short Bio
Ashleigh Hutchinson is an applied mathematician with a research focus on fluid mechanics, particularly low-Reynolds number flows and non-Newtonian fluids. She takes a multidisciplinary approach, combining theoretical models, experiments, and simulations. Her work also extends to industrial applications in finance, mining, energy conservation, and more. She earned her PhD from the University of the Witwatersrand and was a Newton International Fellow at Cambridge before joining the University of Manchester as a lecturer.