Dr. Ileana C. Carpen
Assistant Professor
CEGRA and ΩXE Faculty Advisor

Contact Info:
Tennessee Tech University
Department of Chemical Engineering
Prescott Hall-Room 308
1020 Stadium Drive
Box 5013
Cookeville, TN 38505-0001
Phone: (931) 372.3474
Fax (931) 372.6352
E-mail:ICarpen@tntech.edu

Macrorheology of Materials • Flow Stability of Complex Fluids • Colloidal Suspensions

Education

• Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, 2005
• M.S., Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, 2002
• B.S., Stanford University, 1999

Honors and Awards

• Postdoctoral Research Associate. Physics of Complex Fluids Group, Faculty of Science and Technology, Enschede, The Netherlands, 2004-2005
• Constantin Memorial Lecture in Chemical Engineering for the best PhD candidacy report, California Institute of Technology, 2001
• National Science Foundation Graduate Student Fellowship, 1999
• Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society, 1999
• Stanford University President’s Scholar, 1995-99

Research Statement

Dr. Carpen’s general area of research is focused on the microrheology of complex fluids and materials including suspensions, structured gels, and tissue scaffolds. She primarily focused her efforts on describing the rheological behavior of the complex fluid and/or material by computational approaches based on Brownian dynamics simulations to obtain information about system properties (such as viscosity). This information is relevant to improving the understanding of materials at the micro and macro scale and in aiding in the design of materials with an improved performance for a variety of applications including the design of membranes and scaffolds for tissue support and growth. Dr. Carpen will initially continue focusing her efforts on advanced computer simulations but, at a later stage, she will incorporate experimental efforts in a collaborative fashion.

Recent Publications

I. Carpen and J. Brady, "Microrheology of Colloidal Dispersions," J. Rheology, To be Submitted.

I. Carpen and J. Brady, "Microrheolgy of Colloidal Dispersions," Bulletin of APS (Abstract, 2004)

I. Carpen and J. Brady, "Gravitational Instability in Suspension Flow," J. Fluid Mechanics, 472, 201-210 (2003).

J. Brady and I. Carpen,"Second Normal Stress Jump Instability in Non-Newtonian Fluids," J. Non-Newtonian Fluids Mech., 102, 219-232 (2002)

I. Carpen and J. Brady, "Second Normal Stress Instability in non-Newtonian Fluids," Bulletin of APS (Abstract, 2001).