Description A space experiment recently conducted on board the International Space Station has demonstrated the ability of vibrations applied to a differentially heated cubic enclosure containing a solid-particle/fluid mixture to force particles to self-organise and form complex aggregates or structures (https://t-paola.co.uk/).

This 4th year project stems from an ongoing collaboration between MAE and the UK Space Agency (USA). Its scope is to extend this research by considering enclosures with different shapes and various relative directions of the imposed temperature difference and vibrations. The problem will be tackled in the framework of numerical simulations (OpenFoam or Ansys Fluent software). The outcomes of the project will support current MAE efforts to define a new contactless manipulation strategy for the control of solid particles dispersed in a fluid, which will lead in the future to the production of new materials in space with properties that cannot be obtained in normal gravity conditions (https://t-paola.co.uk/).

The student will be provided with the required training. It is expected that the student will use such codes to explore the system dynamical response in the space of parameters. The student may require to have a suitable personal PC/laptop to install and run the OpenFOAM or other CFD and visualization applications. Key Objectives

• To determine the different particle structures that arise in a 2D triangular cavity under different heating conditions.

• To expand the analysis to the 3D case by considering tetrahedral and octahedral configurations.