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How long would it take to model my application (see description)

Posted 19.05.2022, 05:43 GMT-4 Fluid & Heat, Heat Transfer, Particle Tracing for Fluid Flow 1 Reply

Tobias Corthouts
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For my PhD, I would like to model the following:

The penetration of an ink into a porous structure. The ink consists of PVDF (polymer) dissolved in acetone. The penetration should be represented as the following:

  • A drop of a certain size ( approx. 50µm) arriving at a certain speed.
  • This droplet will penetrate a cylindrical hole with a certain depth (approx. 150µm) and a certain diameter (approx. 30µm).
  • The evaporation of the droplet during penetration should be taken into account.
  • The movement of the PVDF particles in the ink must be taken into account to know where the PVDF is deposited on the cavity (cylindrical hole).

I have no experience so I am totally unable to estimate if this is feasible and how long it might take if I work 40 hours a week on this. Would anyone give me an estimate of how long this might take?

Thanks in advance!

1 Reply Last Post 20.05.2022, 10:29 GMT-4
Jeff Hiller COMSOL Employee

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Posted: 3 years ago 20.05.2022, 10:29 GMT-4

Hello Tobias,

You write "I have no experience". I take that to mean that you do not have experience with using engineering simulation software, but that you do have training in the underlying physics and their mathematical modeling and that you have access to the material properties involved in those equations, so I'll focus my answer below on how complex those equations are to set up and solve in COMSOL.

The physics you are interested in tackling (two-phase flow, capillary effects, evaporation, particle traing) can all be tackled with the COMSOL software and you will find, or may have already found, example models and papers on this website illustrating all of them. They are not the easiest for a first-time user, even in isolation, let alone in combination - so consider yourself warned - but they are all feasible.

Predicting how long it will take you to arrive at results that will satisfy you is challenging. We don't know how quick a learner you are, what resources you have available to you (colleagues, labmates, adviser, etc that can provide you with assistance and insights along the way), whether you are looking solely to glean qualitative insights from the model or need to get very accurate quantitative results from the model, etc.

With all that said, whether you're preparing for a career in academia or in industry, I would argue that, these days, you shouldn't finish a graduate degree in an Engineering discipline without having acquired extensive experience with numerical simulations, and that, therefore, even if you were to not ultimately reach your initial modeling goal you will have gained crucial skills in the process.

Best,

Jeff

-------------------
Jeff Hiller
Hello Tobias, You write "I have no experience". I take that to mean that you do not have experience with using engineering simulation software, but that you do have training in the underlying physics and their mathematical modeling and that you have access to the material properties involved in those equations, so I'll focus my answer below on how complex those equations are to set up and solve in COMSOL. The physics you are interested in tackling (two-phase flow, capillary effects, evaporation, particle traing) can all be tackled with the COMSOL software and you will find, or may have already found, example models and papers on this website illustrating all of them. They are not the easiest for a first-time user, even in isolation, let alone in combination - so consider yourself warned - but they are all feasible. Predicting how long it will take you to arrive at results that will satisfy you is challenging. We don't know how quick a learner you are, what resources you have available to you (colleagues, labmates, adviser, etc that can provide you with assistance and insights along the way), whether you are looking solely to glean qualitative insights from the model or need to get very accurate quantitative results from the model, etc. With all that said, whether you're preparing for a career in academia or in industry, I would argue that, these days, you shouldn't finish a graduate degree in an Engineering discipline without having acquired extensive experience with numerical simulations, and that, therefore, even if you were to not ultimately reach your initial modeling goal you will have gained crucial skills in the process. Best, Jeff

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