Introduction

The research project will be performed in the Soft Matter Rheology and Technology (SMaRT) section in the Chemical Engineering Department at KU Leuven and the Processing and Performance of Materials (P&P) section in the Mechanical Engineering Department at TU Eindhoven under the joint supervision of Profs. Lambèrt van Breemen and Ruth Cardinaels. The research in the SMaRT section is mostly of experimental nature and aims at designing methodologies for intelligent process or product (formulation) design using so-called complex fluids or soft matter. Extensive state-of-the-art and home-built experimental facilities for the characterization of rheological properties, combined with various techniques to characterize microstructure development during flow are available. Dielectric and electromagnetic properties can be characterized in the low frequency as well as high frequency region. The research in the P&P section aims to enable a transition from experi...