Dr Emilia Nowak MEng, PhD, AMIChemE

School of Chemical Engineering
Research Fellow

Contact details

Telephone: +44 (0) 121 414 5081
Email: e.nowak@bham.ac.uk

Address: School of Chemical Engineering
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Research Fellow in the field of multiphase and interfacial flows and microstructured liquid products. Emilia’s research interests include colloids, interfacial phenomena, bubbles/droplets coalescence/breakage, capillarity, surface/interfacial energies, wettability, microfluidic flows and complex particles formulation.

Career History

2013-present: Research Fellow in the Multi-scale Examination of MultiPHase physIcs in flowS (MEMPHIS Multiphase) at University of Birmingham

2012- 2013: Researcher (University of Birmingham, UK) and member of the NANOHEX, the world’s largest collaborative project for the research and development of nanofluid coolants that comprises of a consortium of 12 leading European companies and research centres.

03/2012-06/2012: Researcher in the Microstructure Group (University of Birmingham, UK) in the project entitled “Design and manufacture of novel food structures for the targeted delivery of bioactive components to the large intestine”.

Qualifications

PhD in Multiphase Systems Group, School of Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham, UK, 2013
MEng in Chemical and Process Engineering, West Pomeranian University of Technology, Poland, 2008
MSc (half course) in Automatic Control and Robotics, West Pomeranian University of Technology, Poland, 2007

Biography

Emilia gained her M. Eng. in Chemical Engineering from West Pomeranian University of Technology in Poland where she received Chancellor’s award for Best Student in the graduating year. The subject of her PhD in Chemical Engineering at the University of Birmingham was the investigation of the hydrodynamics of multiphase slurry reactors focusing on the bubbles-catalysts-oil interactions. She has been involved in the EU collaborative project where she was investigating heat transfer in nano-fluids and examined the efficiency of nano-fluids based coolants for application in high power electronic devices. Emilia was also involved in the work of Microstructure Group at University of Birmingham were she was developing methods to simulate the processes occurring in human gastrointestinal tract by applying the principles of formulation engineering.

Currently, she’s involved in the MEMPHIS MULTIPHASE project that aims to harness the synergy between world-leading scientists from four prestigious institutions to create the next generation modelling tools for complex multiphase flows. These flows are central to micro-fluidics, virtually every processing and manufacturing technology, oil-and-gas and nuclear applications, and biomedical applications such as lithotripsy and laser-surgery cavitation.

Teaching

Teaching assistant in Advanced Transport Phenomena, Heat Transfer, Computing for Design, Systems Modelling.

Postgraduate supervision

Involved in different PhD projects of Particle and Multiphase Processing research group.

Research

Research Themes

Microfluidics and free surface flows

Application of optical diagnostics to image fluid deformation, droplet rupture, coalescence and interface topology in complex multiphase systems using microfluidics and micromanipulation of fluid threads to obtain flow features under tightly controlled conditions.

Complex microstructures formulation

Manufacturing of structured fluids for fast-moving consumer-goods (FMCG) products, multiple emulsions, drug delivery systems.

Interfacial phenomena and colloids

Three-phase contact angle, wettability, surface energies and particles to bubble attachment, fluid gels formation, emulsification.

Multiphase flows

Experimental multiphase flows and interfacial phenomena including the hydrodynamics of complex multiphase gas/liquid/solid dispersions and fluid mechanical measurements using optical based methods.

Other activities

Associate Member of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (AMIChemE)

Member of American Physical Society (APS)

Member of the Society of Chemical Industry (SCI)

Peer reviewer for Powder Technology

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Story, A, Jaworski, Z, Simmons, MJ & Nowak, E 2018, 'Comparative PIV and LDA studies of Newtonian and non-Newtonian flows in an agitated tank', Chemical Papers, vol. 72, no. 3, pp. 593–602. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11696-017-0307-4

Kovalchuk, NM, Roumpea, E, Nowak, E, Chinaud, M, Angeli, P & Simmons, MJH 2018, 'Effect of surfactant on emulsification in microchannels', Chemical Engineering Science, vol. 176, pp. 139-152. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ces.2017.10.026

Roumpea, E, Kovalchuk, NM, Chinaud, M, Nowak, E, Simmons, MJH & Angeli, P 2018, 'Experimental studies on droplet formation in a flow-focusing microchannel in the presence of surfactants', Chemical Engineering Science. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ces.2018.09.049

Kahouadji, L, Nowak, E, Kovalchuk, N, Chergui, J, Juric, D, Shin, S, Simmons, MJH, Craster, RV & Matar, OK 2018, 'Simulation of immiscible liquid–liquid flows in complex microchannel geometries using a front-tracking scheme', Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, vol. 22, no. 11, 126. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-018-2149-y

Nowak, E, Xie, Z, Kovalchuk, NM, Matar, OK & Simmons, MJH 2017, 'Bulk advection and interfacial flows in the binary coalescence of surfactant-laden and surfactant-free drops', Soft Matter, vol. 13, no. 26, pp. 4616-4628. https://doi.org/10.1039/C7SM00328E

Kovalchuk, NM, Nowak, E & Simmons, MJH 2017, 'Kinetics of liquid bridges and formation of satellite droplets: Difference between micellar and bi-layer forming solutions', Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects, vol. 521. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colsurfa.2016.08.060

Kovalchuk, NM, Nowak, E & Simmons, MJH 2016, 'Effect of soluble surfactants on the kinetics of thinning of liquid bridges during drops formation and on size of satellite droplets', Langmuir, vol. 32, no. 20, pp. 5069–5077. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.6b01467

Nowak, E, Kovalchuk, NM, Che, Z & Simmons, MJH 2016, 'Effect of surfactant concentration and viscosity of outer phase during the coalescence of a surfactant-laden drop with a surfactant-free drop', Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects, vol. 505, pp. 124–131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colsurfa.2016.02.016

Haghighi, EB, Utomo, AT, Ghanbarpour, M, Zavareh, AIT, Nowak, E, Khodabandeh, R, Pacek, AW & Palm, B 2015, 'Combined effect of physical properties and convective heat transfer coefficient of nanofluids on their cooling efficiency', International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer, vol. 68, 3245, pp. 32-42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2015.08.011

Nowak, E & Pacek, AW 2015, 'Method for the prediction of the particle attachment to the bubble in oil at elevated temperatures', Powder Technology, vol. 274, pp. 105-111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2014.12.024

Story, A, Jaworski, Z, Simmons, M & Nowak, E 2014, 'PIV measurements of the velocity field of a Newtonian fluid in a stirred tank equipped with the PMT type impeller', Technical Transactions, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 125-134.

Nowak, E, Combes, G, Stitt, EH & Pacek, A 2013, 'A comparison of contact angle measurement techniques applied to highly porous catalyst supports', Powder Technology, vol. 233, pp. 52-64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2012.08.032

Nowak, E, Robbins, P, Combes, G, Stitt, EH & Pacek, AW 2013, 'Measurements of contact angle between fine, non-porous particles with varying hydrophobicity and water and non-polar liquids of different viscosities', Powder Technology, vol. 250, pp. 21-32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2013.09.001

Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Spyropoulos, F & Nowak, E 2013, Hydrocolloid Formulations Engineered for Properties in the GI Tract. in Formulation Engineering of Foods. John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118597651.ch11

View all publications in research portal