Professor of Chemical Engineering

Research Areas

Rheology

Research Interests

The main research interest of our group has been focused on the analysis of rheological constitutive equations and the viscoelastic flow modeling. Based on this basic idea, we can increase productivity and solve problems in polymer processing operations. We choose the well-posed constitutive equation for flow modeling and then develop computational tool to model viscoelastic flows in polymer processing. Our main goal is to understand various unstable flow phenomena observed in real flow situation and elucidate their origins.

DEVELOPMENT OF COMPUTATIONAL ALGORITHM FOR TIME DEPENDENT VISCOELASTIC FLOWS
The correct numerical description of 1D transient behavior is very important in practical and academic aspects. It suggests a good starting point for computation of transient viscoelastic flow and may be applied to solving many industrial problems. So we choose the 1D poiseuille flow as a basic problem and test the developed algorithm. Then we implement this new algorithm into 2D and 3D finite element code for viscoelastic flow simulation.

FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF VISCOELASTIC FLOWS WITH TENSOR-LOG FORMULATION
High Deborah or Weissenberg number problems in viscoelastic flow modeling have been know formidably difficult even in the inertia less limit. However so-called tensor-logarithmic formulation of the viscoelastic constitutive equations resolves this problem. We implement this formulation in our simulation code with developed transient algorithm and describe high Deborah number flow phenomena with enhanced convergence and speed. Our next step is to model various unstable flow phenomena and verify their origin.

Selected Publications

1. Y.Kwon and J. Han, “Convergence limit in numerical modeling of steady contraction viscoelastic flow and time-dependent behavior near the limit”, Korea-Australia Rheology Journal, 22, 237 (2010)

2. j.Lee, Y. Kwon and A.L. Leonov, “Modeling reaction injection molding process of phenol-formaldehyde resin filled with wood dust”,
Korea-Australia Rheology Journal, 20, 59 (2008)

3. J. Lee, S. Yoon, Y. Kwon and S. J. Kim, “Practical comparison of differential viscoelastic constiutive equations in finite element analysis of planar 4:1 contraction flow”, Rheologica Acta, 44, 188 (2004)

Professional Experience

KIST 연구원 (1987-1989)
Korea-Australia Rheology_journal의 Associate Editor (1999-2005)
Cornell Univ.(2004) 교토대(2011) 객원교수