BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Memento EPFL// BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:MechE Colloquium: Let droplets drop the temperature: Enhancing he at transfer using droplets DTSTART:20260915T120000 DTEND:20260915T130000 DTSTAMP:20260922T134206Z UID:6a38fa197a5fd7eeda3707412ac63841ecd724956d99b175f01a6e71 CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars DESCRIPTION:Prof. Patricia Weisensee\, McKelvey School of Engineering\,  Washington University in St. Louis\nAbstract: We experience and rely o n droplets almost every single day of our lives: some more familiar (the s hower in the morning\, the rain on our way to work\, printing a documents once at work\, etc.)\, some less obvious (atmospheric water harvesting\, t hermal management & power generation\, materials manufacturing and process ing). Yet we hardly ever think about them – we take them for granted. In this talk I will show that droplets aren’t only ubiquitous in both natu re and industrial processes\, but also a complex and fascinating research subject that still holds many mysteries to be solved. In my research group \, we are especially interested in the coupling of fluid dynamics\, heat t ransfer\, and phase change (condensation or evaporation) during the intera ction of droplets with solid or other liquid surfaces.\nIn this presentati on\, I will introduce two examples of such interactions: 1) droplet impact and evaporation/boiling dynamics on heated surfaces\, and 2) dropwise and pseudo-dropwise condensation on different kinds of surfaces. For example\ , on so-called lubricant-infused surfaces\, lubricant wetting ridges surro unding droplets introduce an attractive capillary force\, leading to self- propelled and gravity-independent droplet motion\, which efficiently clear s the surface for frequent re-nucleation and enhances condensation rates. Droplet self-propulsion can also be observed when condensing vapors of flu id mixtures on bare surfaces. On the other hand\, restricting the mobility of droplets can be advantageous during droplet evaporation. Interestingly \, when droplets impact a heated surface\, the creation of additional cont act lines\, either through wettability-patterning the surface or the forma tion of an entrapped air bubble\, does not significantly alter the heat tr ansfer performance. Instead\, convection (at early times) and conduction ( at later times) dominate heat transfer\, meaning that the addition of – for example – metallic posts with high thermal conductivity on the surfa ce can effectively increase heat transfer rates in these scenarios.\n\n\nB iography: Dr. Weisensee is an Associate Professor in the Department of Me chanical Engineering & Materials Science at Washington University in St. L ouis (WashU). She earned her PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the Univer sity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in 2016. She received a Diplom -Ingenieur in Mechanical Engineering from TU Munich in 2013 and also holds a M.S. in Materials Sciences from UIUC (2011). At WashU\, Dr. Weisensee l eads the Thermal Fluids Research Group\, which focuses on understanding th e interplay of fluid dynamics and heat transfer of droplets and other mult i-phase systems\, with applications in thermal management\, water harvesti ng\, additive manufacturing\, and droplet interactions with natural and en gineered systems. To fundamentally study these thermal-fluidic interaction s\, her group combines multiple experimental techniques\, such as high-spe ed optical and infrared (IR) imaging\, interferometry\, confocal fluoresce nce microscopy\, and conventional heat transfer measurements. Dr. Weisense e is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award\, the NASA Early Career Faculty A ward\, the AFOSR YIP Award\, the 2014 Siemens Energy Award\, the 2020 ASME ICNMM Outstanding Early Investigator Award and 2025 micro Flow and Interf acial Phenomena Leadership Award\, as well as the St. Louis-wide 2020 Emer son Excellence in Teaching Award. LOCATION:BM 5202 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==BM%205202 https://epfl.zoom.u s/j/61360740951 STATUS:CONFIRMED END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR