Thursday, June 4
1:00 – 2:00 pm | Grains-in-motion: from x-ray rheography to heterarchical granular dynamics
Professor
Director of the Sydney Centre in Geomechanics and Mining Materials (SciGEM)
University of Sydney
Abstract: Bulk materials, often in granular form, underpin a wide range of industries and scientific fields, from minerals engineering and pharmaceutics to batteries, geophysics, and geotechnology. Far from static, these systems are inherently dynamic, and understanding their motion is key to both process performance and fundamental science. In recent years, my team and I have developed a distinctive capability in this space, advancing the science of grains-in-motion.
This talk highlights two developments that translate fundamental insights into practical tools. First, DynamiX, a world-unique simultaneous three-way X-ray imaging system, enables X-ray rheography, a new method for measuring three-dimensional internal motion in granular systems. Second, heterarchical granular dynamics introduces a computational framework for modelling complex particulate systems. It enables tracking of arbitrary grain-size distributions across large systems and overcomes key limitations of conventional discrete element methods.
Together, these approaches provide experimentally validated, quantitative access to bulk material dynamics across scales, supporting improved modelling, design, and optimisation of particulate processes.
Biosketch: After completing his PhD at the Technion, Israel, in 2002, Itai Einav moved to the University of Western Australia for his postdoc. In 2005, he joined the University of Sydney as a Senior Lecturer and was promoted to Full Professor in 2012. While in Sydney, he has served as the Director of the Sydney Centre in Geomechanics and Mining Materials (SciGEM). His research is guided by a passion for bridging physics and engineering. This interdisciplinary focus has enabled him to make significant contributions across both domains while developing a versatile toolkit of theoretical, computational, and experimental methods. Building on this foundation, Itai has advanced research in areas such as geomechanics, granular physics, geophysics, solid and fluid mechanics, and minerals processing, as well as in interdisciplinary collaborations at the interface with the arts.