W. N. Lacey Lectureship in Chemical Engineering

 I describe two kinds of low Reynolds number flows where we have sought to identify new solutions. First, it is well known that the flow of thin liquid films has a large research literature in fluid mechanics. Also, the bending of an elastic beam has a large research literature in elasticity. Here we combine the two problems to study the spreading of a liquid over an elastic beam – the spreading fluid changes the shape of the beam and, in turn, the bending of the beam influences the fluid flow. Second, we consider the hydrodynamic resistance of a hot particle, as occurs when laser heating of a dilute suspension occurs. The viscosity varies with position about the particle which changes the familiar hydrodynamic drag. We present a solution using the Reciprocal Theorem so as to bypass many of the usual calculations