ERC FUNDED PROJECTS

Space exploration is one of boldest and most exciting endeavors that humanity has undertaken, and it holds enormous promise for the future. Our next challenges for the spatial conquest include bringing back samples to Earth by means of robotic missions and continuing the manned exploration program, which aims at sending human beings to Mars and bring them home safely. Inaccurate prediction of the heat-flux to the surface of the spacecraft heat shield can be fatal for the crew or the success of a robotic mission. This quantity is estimated during the design phase. An accurate prediction is a particularly complex task, regarding modelling of the following phenomena that are potential “mission killers:” 1) Radiation of the plasma in the shock layer, 2) Complex surface chemistry on the thermal protection material, 3) Flow transition from laminar to turbulent. Our poor understanding of the coupled mechanisms of radiation, ablation, and transition leads to the difficulties in flux prediction. To avoid failure and ensure safety of the astronauts and payload, engineers resort to “safety factors” to determine the thickness of the heat shield, at the expense of the mass of embarked payload. Thinking out of the box and basic research are thus necessary for advancements of the models that will better define the environment and requirements for the design and safe operation of tomorrow’s space vehicles and planetary probes for the manned space exploration. The three basic ingredients for predictive science are: 1) Physico-chemical models, 2) Computational methods, 3) Experimental data. We propose to follow a complementary approach for prediction. The proposed research aims at: “Integrating new advanced physico-chemical models and computational methods, based on a multidisciplinary approach developed together with physicists, chemists, and applied mathematicians, to create a top-notch multiphysics and multiscale numerical platform for simulations of planetary atmosphere entries, crucial to the new challenges of the manned space exploration program. Experimental data will also be used for validation, following state-of-the-art uncertainty quantification methods.”

1 494 892 €

Start date: 2010-09-01, End date: 2015-08-31

"The solar coronal heating problem is a long-standing astrophysical problem. The slow DC (reconnection) heating models are well developed in detailed 3D numerical simulations. The fast AC (wave) heating mechanisms have traditionally been neglected since there were no wave observations. Since 2007, we know that the solar atmosphere is filled with transverse waves, but still we have no adequate models (except for my own 1D analytical models) for their dissipation and plasma heating by these waves. We urgently need to know the contribution of these waves to the coronal heating problem. In BOSS-WAVES, I will innovate the AC wave heating models by utilising novel 3D numerical simulations of propagating transverse waves. From previous results in my team, I know that the inclusion of the back-reaction of the solar plasma is crucial in understanding the energy dissipation: the wave heating leads to chromospheric evaporation and plasma mixing (by the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability). BOSS-WAVES will bring the AC heating models to the same level of state-of-the-art DC heating models. The high-risk, high-gain goals are (1) to create a coronal loop heated by waves, starting from an "empty" corona, by evaporating chromospheric material, and (2) to pioneer models for whole active regions heated by transverse waves."

1 991 960 €

Start date: 2017-10-01, End date: 2022-09-30

A wide variety of materials including coatings and adhesives, emerging materials for nanotechnology products, as well as everyday food products are processed or delivered as suspensions. The flow properties of such suspensions must be finely adjusted according to the demands of the respective processing techniques, even for the feel of cosmetics and the perception of food products is highly influenced by their rheological properties. The recently developed capillary suspensions concept has the potential to revolutionize product formulations and material design. When a small amount (less than 1%) of a second immiscible liquid is added to the continuous phase of a suspension, the rheological properties of the mixture are dramatically altered from a fluid-like to a gel-like state or from a weak to a strong gel and the strength can be tuned in a wide range covering orders of magnitude. Capillary suspensions can be used to create smart, tunable fluids, stabilize mixtures that would otherwise phase separate, significantly reduce the amount organic or polymeric additives, and the strong particle network can be used as a precursor for the manufacturing of cost-efficient porous ceramics and foams with unprecedented properties. This project will investigate the influence of factors determining capillary suspension formation, the strength of these admixtures as a function of these aspects, and how capillary suspensions depend on external forces. Only such a fundamental understanding of the network formation in capillary suspensions on both the micro- and macroscopic scale will allow for the design of sophisticated new materials. The main objectives of this proposal are to quantify and predict the strength of these admixtures and then use this information to design a variety of new materials in very different application areas including, e.g., porous materials, water-based coatings, ultra low fat foods, and conductive films.

1 489 618 €

Start date: 2013-08-01, End date: 2018-07-31

CONTEXT - Nanoporous structures are used for application in catalysis, molecular separation, fuel cells, dye sensitized solar cells etc. Given the near molecular size of the porous network, it is extremely challenging to modify the interior surface of the pores after the nanoporous material has been synthesized. THIS PROPOSAL - Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) is envisioned as a novel technique for creating catalytically active sites and for controlling the pore size distribution in nanoporous materials. ALD is a self-limited growth method that is characterized by alternating exposure of the growing film to precursor vapours, resulting in the sequential deposition of (sub)monolayers. It provides atomic level control of thickness and composition, and is currently used in micro-electronics to grow films into structures with aspect ratios of up to 100 / 1. We aim to make the fundamental breakthroughs necessary to enable atomic layer deposition to engineer the composition, size and shape of the interior surface of nanoporous materials with aspect ratios in excess of 10,000 / 1. POTENTIAL IMPACT Achieving these objectives will enable atomic level engineering of the interior surface of any porous material. We plan to focus on three specific applications where our results will have both medium and long term impacts: - Engineering the composition of pore walls using ALD, e.g. to create catalytic sites (e.g. Al for acid sites, Ti for redox sites, or Pt, Pd or Ni) - chemical functionalization of the pore walls with atomic level control can result in breakthrough applications in the fields of catalysis and sensors. - Atomic level control of the size of nanopores through ALD controlling the pore size distribution of molecular sieves can potentially lead to breakthrough applications in molecular separation and filtration. - Nanocasting replication of a mesoporous template by means of ALD can result in the mass-scale production of nanotubes.

1 432 800 €

Start date: 2010-01-01, End date: 2014-12-31