Computational Modelling of Soft Matter, Coarse-grained Methods, and Microfluidics.

TOPICAL COLLECTIONS

Guest Editor

Charith Rathnayaka

University of the Sunshine Coast (USC) | Queensland University of Technology (QUT)

Dr. Rathnayaka is currently a Lecturer in Engineering at University of the Sunshine Coast (USC) and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA). He is also an Adjunct Lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). He is alumni of LAMSES (Laboratory for Advanced Modelling and Simulation in Engineering and Science). Dr. Rathnayaka conducts his research on Computational Mechanics while implementing learning and teaching research on Engineering Education. His research on Computational Mechanics focuses on better understanding of the mechanical response of soft matter under different loading conditions as caused by various natural and man-made circumstances. His Engineering education-related research focuses on peer-programs, support-for-learning, student success and retention. He is an Editorial Board member for the Journal of Peer Learning. He completed his PhD in the field of Computational Mechanics at QUT in 2017, having previously completed Bachelor of Engineering (Honours). He was awarded QUT Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award (Executive Dean’s Commendation Award) for carrying out outstanding research. During his PhD, he successfully developed the world’s first meshfree computational mechanics-based plant cellular drying model. In doing so, he used Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) and Coarse-Grained methods to develop advanced computational methods with the aid of High-Performance Computing (HPC) technologies. He has been capitalising on these skills and knowledge to conduct further research in multidisciplinary domains of engineering and science. Dr. Rathnayaka conducts his teaching in multiple sub-fields of Engineering such as Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics. In 2018, he was nominated for a Vice Chancellor’s Excellence Award at QUT based on his highly successful teaching efforts. His body of work in the area of Engineering Education has recently been recognised through the award of a Senior Fellowship of UK Higher Education Academy (SFHEA).

Collection Overview

“Soft matter” comprises numerous biological materials, digital microfluids, complex fluids such as polymer solutions and colloidal suspensions, gels, foams, liquid crystals, and granular materials (Schiller et al., 2018). The higher degree of deformability and self-organising capability of soft matter often lead to complex dynamics in time and length scales. As such, it can be challenging to characterise soft matter and subsequent phenomena through purely experimental means. Due to the recent advances in computing technologies, computational modelling has been gaining popularity among soft matter researchers as a viable tool to visualise and characterise soft matter and related phenomena. Interesting developments have been reported with respect to various categories of computational modelling methods, for example, grid-based methods, meshfree methods, particle-based methods, and multiscale methods etc. Due to the existence and emergence of many specific computational methods under each of these broad categories, it can be challenging to figure out how a certain soft matter-related phenomenon can be matched with the most suitable modelling technique.

In this collection, our aim is to bring together researchers who work on different types of soft matter and understand how computational modeling can be applied with or without the use of experimental procedures, in order to enhance the understanding of soft matter with the help of computational models and other visualization techniques, hence making this a platform for research on soft matter easier to understand, as well as incepted.

Articles

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A Microphysiological System to Study Leukocyte-Endothelial Cell Interaction during Inflammation

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Cited by 6

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2021

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Qingliang Yang¹, Jordan C. Langston², Yuan Tang³, Balabhaskar Prabhakarpandian⁴, Laurie E. Kilpatrick⁵, Mohammad F. Kiani^1,2,6

¹Department of Mechanical Engineering, Temple University, ²Department of Bioengineering, Temple University, ³Department of Bioengineering, University of Toledo, ⁴Biomedical Technology, CFD Research Corporation, ⁵Center for Inflammation and Lung Research, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Inflammation, Lewis Katz School of Medicine, Temple University, ⁶Department of Radiation Oncology, Lewis Katz School of Medicine, Temple University