Flowing matter lies at the crossroads between
industrial processes, fundamental physics, engineering and Earth
Sciences. Depending on the microscopic interactions, an assembly of
molecules or of mesoscopic particles can flow like a simple Newtonian
fluid, deform elastically like a solid or behave in a complex
manner. When the internal constituents are active, as for biological
entities, complex collective motions can be observed. Sometimes these
particles undergo breakup or coalescence processes, whose occurrence
strongly depends on the flow statistics. Flowing matter frequently
presents a tight coupling between small-scale structures and
large-scale flow urging for a unifying view at both Lagrangian and
Eulerian levels.
The phenomenology is further complicated by the invariable tendency of
fluids to display chaos. Flows of interest can be at the nano, micro
or macro scales, to be treated with different theoretical, numerical
and experimental approaches. The applications of micro- and
nanofluidics are numerous, including biotech lab-on-a-chips and
microcapillary devices. The problems involved contain diverse nano and
microscales touching atomistic scales (wall slip, thin films and
moving contact lines), mesoscopic collective behaviour (emulsions and
soft-glassy materials) and hydrodynamical spatio-temporal evolutions
(droplets and interface dynamics) with complex rheology and strong
non-equilibrium properties. From nano to macro scales, the interplay
of the dynamics at the different scales still remains elusive and
challenging. Flows at macro-scaleas are often turbulent, with fully
unpredictable spatial and temporal evolutions. Turbulence affects and
might be affected by small particles advected and diffused at all
scales. Turbulence is still a challenging and open problems, new ideas
concerning turbulence modeling and control are mandatory. A
comprehensive control of fluid motions across all scales is needed to
charter new roads in dynamics of fluids.
The workshop is meant to coordinate the research activities of the scientists belonging to the
Cost Action 'Flowing Matter' MP1305 and in synergy with the scientific program of the ERC grants DROEMU "DROplets and EMUlsions: dynamics and rheology" and NewTURB "New eddy-simulation concepts and methodologies for frontier problems in TURBulence".
The workshop is meant to expose young researcher to the most recent advancements in these fields, by dealing with numerical, experimental and theoretical studies.
The program includes both long lectures, covering general topics and short talks focused on specific subject.