ME 8111: Multiphase Systems Analysis is a graduate level course taught in the University of Minnesota Department of Mechanical Engineering. The course broadly focuses on the properties and behavior of dispersions, i.e. aerosols, colloidal systems, and emulsions, through analysis of size distributions and size distribution evolution, particle and droplet trajectory analysis, and nucleation and phase change kinetics. The course is designed to be of utility for PhD and MS students in engineering and the physical sciences (multiple disciplines) who are interested in gaining a background on how particle-laden systems behave, and can be engineered. At the University of Minnesota, the course is typically taken by first year graduate students, and the majority have had research interests in aerosol science, colloidal chemistry, biomedical engineering, combustion, dusty plasmas, and particle-laden flows.
The course is taught under the assumption that students have familiarity with fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and probability & statistics at an undergraduate level, and are familiar with solution techniques for ordinary and partial differential equations (both analytical and numerical). However, it can be completed without having prior experience in these courses, as most requisite background material is also introduced within the course. If you are University of Minnesota student interested in taking this course (or a faculty member who may find the course relevant for your lab members), please do not hesitate to reach out to Chris. Students are also welcome to sit-in on lectures or audit the course, in addition to formal enrollment.
Linked below are formally typed up versions of the lecture notes from the Spring 2023 semester; these lecture notes were transcribed by edited by Eric Johnson, a PhD student in mechanical engineering working with Professor Paul Strykowski, based on Chris's lectures. Please feel free to distribute these notes, and we welcome any instructor to use them as they see fit in their own instruction. Please do be sure to credit Eric for preparing them (this was a tremendous amount of work- Chris's lectures are not as clear as these notes!), and if you do end up using them and have suggestions for improvement- please don't hesitate to reach out to Chris!
**Please note the lecture notes do not contain citations to the original source material (papers) for many of the items discussed. These papers were distributed via a course website to students in the course, and are available upon request- nearly all the material in the course is derived from previously published material.