Frederick R. Phelan Jr.

Computational tools play an important role at NIST in the development and interpretation of new measurement techniques. My research at NIST involves modeling and simulation of fluid dynamics and transport phenomena in porous, polymeric and colloidal systems. These are some of our current research interests in the Complex Fluids Group.

• Emulsion Rheology

Emulsions are characterized by the use of surfactants or other interfacial agents to stabilize the suspension, and thus, engineer size, properties, performance and texture. The presence of surfactant at the interface gives rise to an interfacial viscosity, which along with Marangoni stresses, stabilizes the drop by suppressing coalescence. We are developing models which model the effect of interfacial viscosity on drop dynamics to contribute to new methods for measuring interfacial viscosity. (NIST Focus Area=Manufacturing)

• Nanofluidic Transport
  

Nanofluidic flow and diffusion are becoming increasingly important in a range of applications from separation and characterization of biological macromolecules (NIST Focus Area=Health Care) to water purification (NIST Focus Area=Water). Coarse-grained molecular dynamics and Brownian dynamics models are being developed to simulate transport in Nanoscale and macromolecular domains to help describe and interpret measurements in these application areas.

• Colloidal Hydrodynamics

Colloidal hydrodynamics plays an important role in Nanoparticle (NP) metrology. Such measurements are typically "wet" processed and make use of surfactants or other interfacial agents to disperse particles in solution. The self-assembly of interfacial agent about the NPs alters the hydrodynamic and transport properties of the particles, and thus, plays an important role in both the metrology of individual particles and the spontaneous self-organization of the dispersed structures into more complex macrostructures. We are constructing a multiscale modeling approach to gain insight into these processes using coarse-grained MD and path integral techniques to compute transport properties. (NIST Focus Areas=Environment, Manufacturing)

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• 2003-Present: Complex Fluids Group, Polymers Division, NIST
• 2000-2002: Multiphase Materials Group, Polymers Division, NIST
• 1989-2000: Composites Group, Polymers Division, NIST

• Department of Commerce Bronze Medal (2009) with Jeffrey Fagan and Erik Hobbie for "innovative methods to produce suspensions of high-purity single-wall carbon nanotubes with well-defined distributions of physical properties."
  
• Department of Commerce Bronze Medal (1994) for "developing of flow modeling models and animation software that significantly enhance the ability of industry to make low- cost polymer composites."
• Best paper award at Sixth International Conference on Automated Composites (ICAC99)
• Best paper award in Manufacturing Track at 1995 ACCE Meeting

NRC Research Opportunities

Those interested in our research are encouraged to apply for postdoctoral positions. National Research Council (NRC) Postdoctoral Fellowships with an annual stipend of $65,600 per year (as of 2011) are available and open to US Citizens about to receive a Ph.D. or within five years of having received their Ph.D. General information on the NRC program is located here:

• General Information on NIST NRC Opportunities
• List of NIST NRC Opportunities
• Search NIST NRC Opportunities by Keyword/Advisor
  

I am interested in applicants in the following areas:

• Complex Fluids in Microfluidic and Nanofluidic Flows (50.65.41.B7026)
• Sorption and Interfacial Dynamics of Polymers (50.65.41.B4988)
• Microfluidics for Characterization of Complex Fluids (50.65.41.B5584)
• Modeling of Nanotube Separation (50.65.41.B7025)
• “On-a-Chip” Polymer Processing Laboratory (50.65.41.B7268)
  

Recent Presentations

• Frederick R. Phelan Jr., "Molecular Modeling of Polymeric Materials for the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI)," MASMX: Mid-Atlantic Soft Matter Workshop, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. 20057, (January 11, 2013).
  
• Frederick R. Phelan Jr., "Modeling of Coarse-Grained Polymeric Systems for Materials Measurement Science," SciMeeting2012: Applied Molecular Simulations for Product and Process Design, Paris, France, (May 31, 2012). [INVITED]
  
• Frederick R. Phelan Jr., Christopher Forrey, Jon Geist, Samuel M. Stavis, and Elizabeth A. Strychalski, "The Nanofluidic Staircase: A Brownian Motor for Polymer Characterization and Transport," APS March Meeting 2012, Boston, MA, (February 29, 2012).
  
• Frederick R. Phelan Jr. , Christopher Forrey, Jon Geist, Samuel M. Stavis, and Elizabeth A. Strychalski, "Biased Diffusion of a Polymer Chain in a Nanofluidic Staircase," MASM8: Mid-Atlantic Soft Matter Workshop, Gaithersburg, MD, (December 9, 2011).
  
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• Jonathan Schwalbe, Frederick R. Phelan Jr., Petia Vlahovska, Steven D. Hudson, "Interfacial Effects on Droplet Dynamics in Poiseuille Flow," 64th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics , Baltimore, MD (November 20, 2011).
  
• Frederick R. Phelan Jr. , Christopher Forrey, Samuel M. Stavis, Jon Geist, and Elizabeth A. Strychalski, "Entropophoresis of a Polymer Chain Confined in a Nanofluidic Staircase," AICHE 2011 Annual Meeting, Minneapolis, MN, (October 18, 2011).
• Frederick R. Phelan Jr., "Separation Mechanisms for Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (SWCNTs) using Field-Flow Fractionation Techniques," AICHE 2010 Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, UT, (November 10, 2010).
• Frederick R. Phelan Jr.," Separation of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (SWCNTs) using Field-Flow Fractionation Techniques," University of Connecticut, Institute of Materials Science University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, (October 29, 2010). [Invited]
• Frederick R. Phelan Jr., Doyoung Moon, Kalman B. Migler, "Analysis of a Split and Recombine Mixer for Polymer Melts," PPS-26: The Polymer Processing Society 26th Annual Meeting, Banff, Alberta, Canada, (July 8, 2010). [Invited]
  
• Frederick R. Phelan Jr. and Barry J. Bauer, "Separation of SWCNTs by Type using Field-Flow Fractionation Techniques," AIChE 2009 Annual Meeting, Nashville, TN, (November 9, 2009).
• Frederick R. Phelan Jr. and Barry J. Bauer, "Separation of single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) using field-flow fractionation techniques," ACS FFF SYMPOSIUM, Application of Field-Flow Fractionation in Characterization of Macromolecules and Nanoparticles, ACS 2009 Fall Meeting, Washington, DC, (August 18, 2009). [Invited]
  

Recent and Selected Publications

• Kirill Efimenko,  Ali E. Ozcam,  Jan Genzer,  Daniel A. Fischer,  Frederick R. Phelan Jr. and Jack F. Douglas,  “Self-Assembly Fronts in Collision: Impinging Ordering Organosilane Layers,” Soft Matter, 9(8), pp. 2493-2505, (2013).
• Kendra A. Erk, Jeffrey D. Martin, Jonathan T. Schwalbe, Frederick R. Phelan Jr., and Steven D. Hudson, "Shear and Dilational Interfacial Rheology of Surfactant-Stabilized Droplets," Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 377(1), pp. 442-449, (2012).
• Kirill Efimenko, Ali E. Ozcam, Jan Genzer; Daniel A. Fischer; Frederick R. Phelan Jr., and Jack F. Douglas, "Colliding Self-Assembly Waves in Organosilane Monolayers," Ch. 4 in SOFT MATTER GRADIENT SURFACES: METHODS & APPLICATIONS, Wiley, pp. 93-107, (2012).
• Jonathan T. Schwalbe, Frederick R. Phelan, Jr., Petia M. Vlahovska, and Steven D. Hudson, "Interfacial effects on droplet dynamics in Poiseuille flow," Soft Matter, 7(17), pp. 7797-7804, (2011).
• J.A. Fagan, B.J. Bauer, E.K. Hobbie, M. Becker, A.R. Hight Walker, J. Simpson, J.H. Chun, J. Obrzut, V. Bajpai, F.R. Phelan Jr., D.O. Simien, J. Huh, K.B. Migler, "Carbon Nanotubes: Measuring Dispersion and Length," ADVANCED MATERIALS, 23(3), pp. 338-348 (2011).
• Olga Volotskova, Jeffrey A. Fagan, Ji Yeon Huh, Frederick R. Phelan Jr., Alexey Shashurin, and Michael Keidar , "Tailored Distribution of Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes from Arc Plasma Synthesis Using Magnetic Fields," ACS Nano, 4 (9), pp. 5187–5192, (2010).
  
• Frederick R. Phelan Jr. and Barry J. Bauer, "Comparison of steric effects in the modeling of spheres and rodlike particles in field-flow fractionation," Chemical Engineering Science, 64(8), 1747-1758 (2009).
• Frederick R. Phelan Jr., Nicholas R. Hughes, and Jai A. Pathak, "Chaotic Mixing in Microfluidic Devices Driven by Oscillatory Cross Flow", Physics of Fluids, 20 (2), 023101, (2008).
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• Frederick R. Phelan Jr., Prasad Kutty, and Jai A. Pathak, "An electrokinetic mixer driven by oscillatory cross flow", Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, 5 (1), pp. 101-118, (2008).
• Jack F. Douglas, Kirill Efimenko, Daniel A. Fischer, Frederick R. Phelan, and Jan Genzer, "Propagating waves of self-assembly in organosilane monolayers", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 104 (25), pp. 10324-10329, (2007).
• Frederick R. Phelan Jr. and Barry J. Bauer, "Simulation of nanotube separation in field-flow fractionation (FFF)", Chemical Engineering Science, 62, pp. 4620-4635, (2007).
• Frederick R. Phelan Jr., "Simulation of the injection process in resin transfer molding", Polymer Composites, 18(4), pp. 460-476, (1997).
• Michael A.A. Spaid and Frederick R. Phelan Jr., "Lattice Boltzmann methods for modeling microscale flow in heterogeneous porous media", Physics of Fluids, 9(9), pp. 2468-2474, (1997).
• Richard S. Parnas and Frederick R. Phelan Jr., "The Effect of Heterogeneous Porous Media on Mold Filling in Resin Transfer Molding," SAMPE Quarterly, 22(2), pp. 53-60, (1991).