Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Mathematisch-Naturwissen­schaft­liche Fakultät - International Research Training Group 1740

Talk - Prof. J. Vollmer

  • Wann 05.02.2014 von 13:00 bis 14:00
  • Wo PIK, A43, Lecture hall
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Talk



Prof. Dr. Jürgen Vollmer (MPI Dynamics & Self-Organization / Göttingen University)

Title: Droplet Growth and Precipitation

Droplet growth and precipitation are pivotal processes in a vast range of natural processes, ranging from dew formation to the growth of rain droplets, and the catastrophic lake, ocean, and volcano outbreaks. All these processes have in common that droplets grow in order to relax sustained supersaturation of their environment, and that this growth is eventually terminated in a runaway singularity.
We strive to identify generic physical processes that provide a unified point of view to model these phenomena. To this end we have performed comprehensive laboratory experiments and numerical studies addressing droplet growth and the evolution of droplet size distributions in different fluids undergoing phase separation.
Both, for droplets condensing on substrates (like dew) and droplets entrained in an external flow (like in clouds), we observe remarkable shortcomings of classical theories addressing the growth processes. The origins of the discrepancies are identified, and appropriate extensions of the theories are discussed.