What is mathematical modelling?
Mathematical modeling is a technique
used by engineers and scientists since the early ages of science.
Today, with the advent of extremely powerful computers, the tools
available to solve these models have taken a new direction.
Mathematical modeling and numerical simulation have become two very
active fields, complimentary to each other and often confused by
many. Our group develops mathematical models of complex fluid flow
involving chemical reactions, porous media, electromagnetic fields,
radiative heat transfer, multiphase flow, to name a few. All these
phenomena can be represented using physical and chemical laws through
sets of strongly coupled sets of equations. These may be
non-linear partial differential equations, integro-differential
equations, difference equations, etc... that must be transformed and
combined. Some of the tools that are used to solve these complex
coupled systems of equations come from the rich field of the Computational Fluid
Dynamics (CFD), and the solution using these tools is
often named numerical simulation. For many of the phenomena involved in
the modeling of the complex flows we have to develop our own methods
that are not included in traditional CFD methods, for example to
include the behavior of nanoparticles, to calculate transport and
thermodynamica properties of plasmas, heterogeneous catalysis, etc...
Recent work:
- Modelling of a supersonic non-equilibrium inductively coupled plasma jet
- Modelling of Rotating Flux Injector technology for molten aluminum
- Optimization of a multi-phase catalytic electro-hydrogenation reactor
- Population Balance modelling of the mass transfer in a laboratory-scale bioreactor
- Optimization of a nanoparticle production inductively coupled plasma reactor
- Optimisation of the design of a transferred arc plasma smelter