Study level

  • Honours

Faculty/School

Faculty of Engineering

School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering

Topic status

We're looking for students to study this topic.

Research centre

Supervisors

Dr Amal Senevirathne
Position
Post-doctoral Research Fellow
Division / Faculty
Faculty of Engineering

Overview

Microfluidic devices (MFD) are extensively used in microbial studies. Bacterial cell attachment onto surfaces under flow conditions in laminar regime has been previously studied using a custom designed MFD.

As an extension of this study, microbial attachment under turbulent flow is to be studied in a future project. The suitability of current MFD for microbial studies under turbulent flow must be evaluated to adopt / redesign the MFD.

A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis is proposed to examine the fluid flow inside the MFD under turbulent condition using a commercially available CFD software such as Ansys.

The supervisor of this project is: Dr Amal Senevirathne

Research activities

Research activities include:

  • 3D geometrical modelling of fluid volume
  • develop a CFD model
  • meshing and simulating.

Outcomes

Possible outcomes include:

  • new simulation model for MFD under turbulent flow
  • recommendations on suitability / adoptability of current MFD for microbial studies under turbulent flow
  • development of proficiency in CFD
  • enhanced skills in multidisciplinary research.

Skills and experience

You should have:

  • some experience in 3D geometrical modelling
  • basic knowledge of fluid dynamics and CFD.

Keywords

Contact

Contact the supervisor Dr Amal Senevirathne for more information.