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Dr Marc Pradas

Profile summary

  • Central Academic Staff
  • Director of Research
  • Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics
  • School of Mathematics & Statistics
  • marc.pradas

Professional biography

I'm a Senior Lecturer in Applied Mathematics in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the Open University. My research interests are in the areas of fluid mechanics and statistical physics. Previously I was a postdoctoral research associate at the Complex Multiscale Systems group at Imperial College London (2009-2014). I did my PhD in theoretical/statistical physics at the University of Barcelona (2009).​

I'm currently the organiser of the Applied Mathematics Seminar series and I'm the Postgraduate Research Tutor of the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the OU.

Personal website

 

Research interests

My research interests cover a wide range of topics on the interface of applied mathematics, statistical physics, and engineering science. I give particular emphasis on soft condensed matter theory and fluid dynamics, including multiphase flows, microfluidics, and hydrodynamic instabilities. I'm also interested in stochastic/chaotic processes and emergent collective phenomena in complex and biological dynamical systems. 

​Part of my research is funded by EPSRC. I was a co-investigator of the project 'Fluid processes in smart microengineered devices: Hydrodynamics and thermodynamics in microspace' during 2015-2019, and I'm currently the principal investigator of the project 'Droplets with dynamic size on smooth surfaces', in which we explore the interplay between a time-dependent variation of the volume of a sessile droplet and simple smooth variations on the solid surfaces. 

Externally funded projects

CoA: Droplets with dynamic size on smooth surfaces
RoleStart dateEnd dateFunding source
Lead01 Oct 202031 Mar 2021UK Research and Innovation

UKRI CoA allocation fund

Droplets with dynamic size on smooth surfaces
RoleStart dateEnd dateFunding source
Lead01 Oct 201830 Sep 2020EPSRC Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Droplets interacting with solid surfaces are found in a wide variety of daily life experiences and natural phenomena. Their study serves as a canonical example of a wetting phenomenon which, despite its simplicity, has been shown to be a remarkably complicated problem. Many theoretical efforts over the last few years have focused their attention on understanding how the properties of the solid surface affect the dynamics of the droplet, with particular emphasis on droplet control and manipulation, which is important for a wide range of technological applications, such as liquid-repellent surfaces, micro chemical reactors and fluid transport processes, and the rapidly growing fields of Nano- and micro-fluidics. Quite often the volume of the droplets is subject to external, time-dependent variations - a situation that we refer to as droplets with dynamic size. This occurs, for example, when there is mass exchange through the droplet interface (evaporation/condensation phenomena), or when droplets sit on porous materials so that liquid is absorbed through the pores. This project will explore the fundamental interplay between a time-dependent variation of the droplet volume and simple smooth variations on solid surfaces. We aim to investigate under which conditions a droplet may naturally exhibit lateral motion as its volume changes in time, and to exploit this in applications on droplet control, such as directed motion. The ultimate goal of the proposed research is the systematic and predictive theoretical and computational analysis of the dynamics of droplets with dynamic size on surfaces that have controllable and experimentally amenable properties. As a consequence, the outputs of this project can be used to recommend new design rules, geometries, and operational protocols for improved droplet control and manipulation in technological applications that rely on cooling/heating processes and/or porous-based micro-devices.

Publications

Physics-informed machine learning in asymptotic homogenization of elliptic equations (2024-07)
Soyarslan, Celal and Pradas, Marc
Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 427, Article 117043

Flux-conserving directed percolation (2024)
Cucurull, Barto; Huber, Greg; Kawagoe, Kyle; Pradas, Marc; Pumir, Alain and Wilkinson, Michael
Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical, 57, Article 75001(7)

Dynamics of pivoted slider bearings (2024)
Wilkinson, Andrew; Pradas, Marc and Wilkinson, Michael
Physics of Fluids, 36, Article 043603 (2024)

Rotational dynamics of a disk in a thin film of weakly nematic fluid subject to linear friction (2024)
Daddi-Moussa-Ider, Abdallah; Tjhung, Elsen; Pradas, Marc; Richter, Thomas and Menzel, Andreas M.
The European Physical Journal E, 47, Article 58

Lubrication dynamics of a settling plate (2023-12-25)
Wilkinson, Andrew; Pradas, Marc and Wilkinson, Michael
Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 977, Article A28

On the lifetimes of two-dimensional droplets on smooth wetting patterns (2022-06-28)
Haynes, Matthew and Pradas, Marc
Journal of Engineering Mathematics, 135, Article 2

Control of droplet evaporation on smooth chemical patterns (2021-03)
Ewetola, Michael; Ledesma-Aguilar, Rodrigo and Pradas, Marc
Physical Review Fluids, 6, Article 33904(3)

Flooding dynamics of diffusive dispersion in a random potential (2021)
Wilkinson, Michael; Pradas, Marc and Kling, Gerhard
Journal of Statistical Physics, 182, Article 54(3)

Effective elastic properties of 3D stochastic bicontinuous composites (2019-10)
Mechanics of Materials, 137, Article 103098

Hydrodynamic Characterization of Phase Separation in Devices with Microfabricated Capillaries (2019-06-25)
Radhakrishnan, Anand N. P.; Pradas, Marc; Sorensen, Eva; Kalliadasis, Serafim and Gavriilidis, Asterios
Langmuir, 35(25) (pp. 8183-8516)

Contact angle hysteresis in a microchannel: Statics (2019-04)
Hatipogullari, Metin; Wylock, Christophe; Pradas, Marc; Kalliadasis, Serafim and Colinet, Pierre
Physical Review Fluids, 4, Article 44008(4)

Lacunarity exponents (2019-03-15)
Wilkinson, Michael; Pradas, Marc; Huber, Greg and Pumir, Alain
Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical, 52, Article 115101(11)

A linear, second-order, energy stable, fully adaptive finite-element method for phase-field modeling of wetting phenomena (2019-03)
Aymard, Benjamin; Vaes, Urbain; Pradas, Marc and Kallidasis, Serafim
Journal of Computational Physics: X, 2, Article 100010

3D stochastic bicontinuous microstructures: Generation, topology and elasticity (2018-05-01)
Soyarslan, Celal; Bargmann, Swantje; Pradas, Marc and Weissmüller, Jörg
Acta Materialia, 149 (pp. 326-340)

Uniformity transition for ray intensities in random media (2018-04-13)
Pradas, Marc; Pumir, Alain and Wilkinson, Michael
Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical, 51, Article 155002(15)

Snap evaporation of droplets on smooth topographies (2018-04-11)
Wells, Gary G.; Ruiz-Gutierrez, Elfego; Le Lirzin, Youen; Nourry, Anthony; Orme, Bethany V.; Pradas, Marc and Ledesma-Aguilar, Rodrigo
Nature Communications, 9, Article 1380

Solitary waves on falling liquid films in the inertia-dominated regime (2018-02-25)
Denner, Fabian; Charogiannis, Alexandros; Pradas, Marc; Markides, Christos N.; van Wachem, Berend G.M. and Kalliadasis, Serafim
Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 837 (pp. 491-519)

Persistent stability of a chaotic system (2018-02-15)
Huber, Greg; Pradas, Marc; Pumir, Alain and Wilkinson, Michael
Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 492 (pp. 517-523)

Chaotic versus stochastic behavior in active-dissipative nonlinear systems (2017-12-21)
Gotoda, Hiroshi; Pradas, Marc and Kalliadasis, Serafim
Physical Review Fluids, 2, Article 124401

Aggregation-fragmentation-diffusion model for trail dynamics (2017-07-21)
Kawagoe, Kyle; Huber, Greg; Pradas, Marc; Wilkinson, Michael; Pumir, Alain and Ben-Naim, Eli
Physical Review E, 96, Article 12142

Convergent Chaos (2017-07-07)
Pradas, Marc; Pumir, Alain; Huber, Greg and Wilkinson, Michael
Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical, 50, Article 275101(27)

Controlling roughening processes in the stochastic Kuramoto–Sivashinsky equation (2017-06-01)
Gomes, S.N.; Kalliadasis, S.; Papageorgiou, D.T.; Pavliotis, G.A. and Pradas, M.
Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena, 348 (pp. 33-43)

Noise-induced transitions in rugged energy landscapes (2016-09-06)
Duncan, A. B.; Kalliadasis, S.; Pavliotis, G. A. and Pradas, M.
Physical Review E, 94, Article 32107(3)

Self-similarity of solitary waves on inertia-dominated falling liquid films (2016-03-21)
Denner, Fabian; Pradas, Marc; Charogiannis, Alexandros; Markides, Christos N.; van Wachem, Berend G. M. and Kalliadasis, Serafim
Physical Review E, 93, Article 33121(3)

Dynamics of Fattening and Thinning 2D Sessile Droplets (2016)
Pradas, M.; Savva, N.; Benziger, J. B.; Kevrekidis, I. G. and Kalliadasis, S.
Langmuir, 32(19) (pp. 4736-4745)

Data-driven coarse graining in action: Modeling and prediction of complex systems (2015-10-31)
Krumscheid, S.; Pradas, M.; Pavliotis, G. A. and Kalliadasis, S.
Physical Review E, 92, Article 42139(4)

Power-law distributions in noisy dynamical systems (2015-09-17)
Wilkinson, Michael; Guicharaz, Robin; Pradas, Marc and Pumir, Alain
EPL, 111, Article 50005(5)

Controlling spatiotemporal chaos in active dissipative-dispersive nonlinear systems (2015-08-19)
Gomes, S. N.; Pradas, M.; Kalliadasis, S.; Papageorgiou, D. T. and Pavliotis, G. A.
Physical Review E, 92, Article 22912(2)

Nonlinear forecasting of the generalised Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation (2015-02)
Gotoda, Hiroshi; Pradas, Marc and Kalliadasis, Serafim
International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos (IJBC), 25, Article 1530015(5)

Coherent Structures in Nonlocal Dispersive Active-Dissipative Systems (2015)
Lin, Te-Sheng; Pradas, Marc; Kalliadasis, Serafim; Papageorgiou, Demetrios T. and Tseluiko, Dmitri
SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics, 75(2) (pp. 538-563)

A new mode reduction strategy for the generalized Kuramoto–Sivashinsky equation (2015)
Schmuck, M.; Pradas, M.; Pavliotis, G. A. and Kalliadasis, S.
IMA Journal of Applied Mathematics, 80(2) (pp. 273-301)

Operating ranges of gas-liquid capillary microseparators: experiments and theory (2014-07-26)
Roydhouse, Mark D.; Pradas, Marc; Al-Rifai, Noor; Azizi, Benjamin; Cao, Enhong; Kalliadasis, Serafim and Gavriilidis, Asterios
Chemical Engineering Science, 114 (30 - 39)

Pulse dynamics in a power-law falling film (2014-05-25)
Pradas, M.; Tseluiko, D.; Ruyer-Quil, C. and Kalliadasis, S.
Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 747 (pp. 460-480)

New stochastic mode reduction strategy for dissipative systems (2013-06-12)
Schmuck, M.; Pradas, M.; Kalliadasis, S. and Pavliotis, G. A.
Physical Review Letters, 110, Article 244101(24)

Bound-state formation in interfacial turbulence: direct numerical simulations and theory (2013-02)
Pradas, M.; Kalliadasis, S.; Nguyen, P.-K. and Bontozoglou, V.
Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 716, Article R2

Derivation of effective macroscopic Stokes-Cahn-Hilliard equations for periodic immiscible flows in porous media (2013)
Schmuck, Markus; Pradas, Marc; Pavliotis, Grigorios A and Kalliadasis, Serafim
Nonlinearity, 26, Article 3259(12)

Upscaled phase-field models for interfacial dynamics in strongly heterogeneous domains (2012-11-08)
Schmuck, Markus; Pradas, Marc; Pavliotis, Grigorios A. and Kalliadasis, Serafim
Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 468(2147) (pp. 3705-3724)

Additive noise effects in active nonlinear spatially extended systems (2012-10)
Pradas, M.; Pavliotis, G.A.; Kalliadasis, S.; Papageorgiou, D.T. and Tseluiko, D.
European Journal of Applied Mathematics, 23(5) (pp. 563-591)

Disorder-induced hysteresis and nonlocality of contact line motion in chemically heterogeneous microchannels (2012-03)
Wylock, Christophe; Pradas, Marc; Haut, Benoit; Colinet, Pierre and Kalliadasis, Serafim
Physics of Fluids, 24, Article 32108(3)

Binary interactions of solitary pulses in falling liquid films (2012)
Pradas, Marc; Kalliadasis, Serafim and Tseluiko, Dmitri
IMA Journal of Applied Mathematics, 77(3) (pp. 408-419)

Pinning and avalanches in hydrophobic microchannels (2011-05-13)
Queralt-Martín, M.; Pradas, M.; Rodríguez-Trujillo, R.; Arundell, M.; Corvera Poiré, E. and Hernández-Machado, A.
Physical Review Letters, 106, Article 194501(19)

Rigorous coherent-structure theory for falling liquid films: viscous dispersion effects on bound-state formation and self-organization (2011-04-01)
Pradas, Marc; Tseluiko, Dmitri and Kalliadasis, Serafim
Physics of Fluids, 23, Article 44104(4)

Noise induced state transitions, intermittency, and universality in the noisy Kuramoto-Sivashinksy equation (2011-02-10)
Pradas, M.; Tseluiko, D.; Kalliadasis, S.; Papageorgiou, D. T. and Pavliotis, G. A.
Physical Review Letters, 106, Article 60602(6)

Activity statistics, avalanche kinetics, and velocity correlations in surface growth (2010-09)
López, Juan M.; Pradas, Marc and Hernández-Machado, A.
Physical Review E, 82(3) (p 31127)

Avalanche dynamics in fluid imbibition near the depinning transition (2009-11)
Pradas, Marc; López, Juan M. and Hernández-Machado, A.
Physical Review E, 80(5) (p 50101)

Influence of disorder strength on phase-field models of interfacial growth (2008-09)
Laurila, T.; Pradas, M.; Hernández-Machado, A. and Ala-Nissila, T.
Physical Review E, 78(3) (p 31603)

Dynamical scaling of imbibition in columnar geometries (2008-05)
Pradas, M.; Hernández-Machado, A. and Rodríguez, M. A.
Physical Review E, 77(5) (p 56305)

Pressure-dependent scaling scenarios in experiments of spontaneous imbibition (2007-11)
Planet, R.; Pradas, M.; Hernández-Machado, A. and Ortín, J.
Physical Review E, 76(5) (p 56312)

Time-dependent couplings and crossover length scales in nonequilibrium surface roughening (2007-07)
Pradas, Marc; López, Juan M. and Hernández-Machado, A.
Physical Review E, 76(1) (p 10102)

Intrinsic versus superrough anomalous scaling in spontaneous imbibition (2006-10)
Pradas, M. and Hernández-Machado, A.
Physical Review E, 74 (p 41608)

Physics-informed machine learning in the determination of effective thermomechanical properties (2023-04-19)
Soyarslan, C. and Pradas, M.
In : 28th International ESAFORM Conference on Materials Forming (19-21 Apr 2023, Krakow, Poland) (pp. 1621-1630)

Nonlinear Dynamics of Gas-Liquid Separation in a Capillary Microseparator (2018-06-10)
Radhakrishnan, Anand N. P.; Pradas, Marc; Kalliadasis, Serafim and Gavriilidis, Asterios
In : Minichannels ASME 2018 16th International Conference on Nanochannels, Microchannels, and Minichannels (10-13 Jun 2018, Dubrovnik, Croatia)

Interfaces in disordered media. Scaling growth, avalanche dynamics, and microfluidic fronts (2009-09-30)
Pradas, Marc
PhD thesis Universitat de Barcelona