Shelley L. Anna
Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Physics(Courtesy)

Office: Doherty Hall A219
Phone: (412) 268-6492
Fax: (412) 268-3348
Email: sanna@cmu.edu
Secretary (ChemE): Shannon Young
    E-mail: slyoung@andrew.cmu.edu
    Fax: (412) 268-7139
    Phone: (412) 268-2243
Secretary (MechE): Dolores Smiller
    E-mail: ds0s@andrew.cmu.edu
    Office: Scaife Hall 417
    Phone: (412) 268-2492

Biography
Research Interests
Highlights
Awards and Honors
Publications
Research Group Site

Biography

Professor Shelley Anna received a BS in Physics from Carnegie Mellon in 1995 and MS (1996) and PhD (2000) degrees from Harvard in Engineering Sciences. After completing her doctoral degree, Professor Anna joined Solutia Inc as a Senior Research Engineer; she designed rheological test methods for developing and improving Solutia's adhesives, coatings, and films products. In 2001 she returned to Harvard for postdoctoral research. Professor Anna joined Carnegie Mellon's Department of Mechanical Engineering in 2003; she began a joint appointment in Mechanical Engineering and in Chemical Engineering in 2008. The major themes of Professor Anna's research are microfluidics, complex fluid dynamics, and interfacial fluid dynamics.

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Research Interests

Professor Anna develops novel methods to precisely synthesize soft materials and to characterize physical mechanisms governing their dynamics. Her research group uses experimental fluid dynamics tools combined with physical modeling and analysis.

Soft materials are critical to the function of numerous engineering technologies from consumer products and pharmaceuticals to optical devices and energy solutions. Common to all soft materials is the presence of an underlying structure, whether droplets, defects, or macromolecules. Microfluidics has revolutionized our approach to synthesis and characterization of soft materials by enabling precise fabrication and control of flows at length scales that interact with the microstructure. Professor Anna's research group develops new fabrication and measurement methods that build comprehensive knowledge of the dynamics of complex fluids.

Current projects emphasize three research areas, which are collectively funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Energy Technology Laboratory, the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Technology Alliance, the ACS Petroleum Research Fund, and the Berkman Faculty Development Fund.

Droplet Generation and Manipulation in Microfluidics:

Professor Anna's research group develops microfluidic methods to generate monodisperse emulsion droplets micrometers to nanometers in size. She has developed a technology for producing submicron droplets using a fluid mechanical phenomenon called tipstreaming. In collaboration with Prof. L. Walker, She uses tipstreaming to create nanoscale droplet reactors to synthesize transition metal nanoparticles. Such nanoparticles can be used, among other things, for accurate cancer detection and targeted therapies. Other ongoing projects include investigations of coalescence of droplets on surfaces for spray cooling, inkjet printing, and fuel cell applications; and developing microscale methods for characterizing sorption kinetics at fluid interfaces.

Fluid Dynamics of Liquid Crystal Defects:

Microscopic defects play a leading role in the flow behavior of liquid crystals and concentrated surfactant solutions. The presence of defects therefore impacts numerous industrial applications including the development of optoelectronic devices and displays and the processing of coatings, adhesives, and biomaterials to encapsulate drugs. The central problem in optimizing processing conditions for these applications is that neither theory nor experiment are adequately developed to quantitatively describe the fluid dynamics near defects. Professor Anna's research aims to bridge this gap by using microfluidic devices to generate idealized arrays of microscopic defects, and then to characterize the evolution of the defect microstructure and the fluid stresses when defects are subject to well-defined flows.

Two Phase Flows in Model Porous Media:

Fluid invasion into saturated porous media is central to several key technologies for energy and the environment, including carbon sequestration, aquifer remediation, and oil recovery. The fluid mechanics of invasion controls the efficiency and efficacy of a given technology. In collaboration with Prof. M. Ferer (WVU) and the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), Professor Anna's research group has developed model microfluidic networks to characterize the pore-level dynamics of invasion to inform and validate pore level simulations.

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Highlights of 2008

• Prof. Anna changed from 100% appointed in Mechanical Engineering to 50% Mechanical Engineering, 50% Chemical Engineering, effective September 1, 2008.

• Prof. Anna had a recently published paper highlighted in Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science and Technology, 18 (13) Sep 29, 2008. The paper is: G.F. Christopher, N.N. Noharuddin, J.A. Taylor and S.L. Anna, “Experimental observations of the squeezing-to-dripping transition in microfluidic T-junctions,” Physical Review E, 78 (2008) 036317.

• Prof. Anna participated in the National Academies of Engineering 2008 U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Symposium, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, September 18-20, 2008.

• Prof. Anna is to be the Meeting Program Coordinator for the AIChE Area 01J Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics 2010 Meeting, to be held in Salt Lake City, November 2010.

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Awards and Honors

• George Tallman Ladd Research Award, Carnegie Mellon University 2006

• National Science Foundation CAREER Award 2005 to 2011

• Achievement Award, Solutia, Inc., Springfield, Massachusetts January 2001

• Fannie and John Hertz Foundation Graduate Fellowship 1995 to 2000

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Publications

       Recent Publications

       Selected Publications

       Full Publications

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Recent Publications

N.J. Alvarez, L.M. Walker, and S.L. Anna, “A Non-Gradient Based algorithm for the Determination of Surface Tension from a Pendant Drop: Application to Low Bond Number Shapes,” Journal of Colloid and Interface Science Volume 333, Issue 2, 15 May 2009, Pages 557-562

G.F. Christopher and S.L. Anna, “Passive Breakup of Viscoelastic Droplets and Filament Self-Thinning at a Microfluidic T-Junction,” J. Rheol. Volume 53, Issue 3, pp. 663-683 (May/June 2009)

W. Lee, L.M. Walker and S.L. Anna, “Role of Geometry and Fluid Properties in Droplet and Thread Formation Processes in Planar Flow Focusing,” Phys. Fluids 21, 032103 (2009); DOI:10.1063/1.3081407

S. Shojaei-Zadeh and S.L. Anna, “Highly Uniform Micro-Cavity Arrays in Flexible Elastomer Film,” Soft Matter (2009) DOI: 10.1039/b808109c.

G.F. Christopher, J. Bergstein, N.B. End, C. Nguyen, and S.L. Anna, “Splitting and Coalescence of Droplets at Microfluidic Junctions,” Lab on a Chip (2009) DOI: 10.1039/B813062K.

G.F. Christopher, N.N. Noharuddin, J.A. Taylor and S.L. Anna, “Experimental observations of the squeezing-to-dripping transition in microfluidic T-junctions,” Physical Review E, 78 (2008) 036317. Re-published in Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science and Technology, 18 (13) Sep 29, 2008.

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Selected Publications

S.L. Anna, G.H. McKinley, “Elasto-Capillary Thinning and Breakup of Model Elastic Liquids,” Journal of Rheology, 45 (2001) 115-138.

S.L. Anna, N. Bontoux, and H.A. Stone, “Formation of dispersions using ‘flow-focusing’ in microchannels,” Applied Physics Letters, 82 (2003) 364-366.

S.L. Anna and H.C. Mayer, “Microscale Tipstreaming in a Microfluidic Flow Focusing Device,” Physics of Fluids, 18 (2006) 121512.

G.F. Christopher and S.L. Anna, “Microfluidic methods for generating continuous droplet streams,” Journal of Physics D – Applied Physics, 40 (2007) R319-R336.

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Full Publications

1. J.R. Mackey, K.K. Das, S.L. Anna, and G.H. McKinley, “A Compact Dual-Crystal Modulated Birefringence Measurement System for Microgravity Applications,” Measurement Science and Technology, 10 (1999) 946-955.

2. S.L. Anna, C. Rogers, and G.H. McKinley, “On Controlling the Kinematics of a Filament Stretching Rheometer Using a Real-Time Active Control Mechanism,” Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics, 87 (1999) 307-335.

3. S.L. Anna, G.H. McKinley, D.A. Nguyen, T. Sridhar, S.J. Muller, J. Huang, and D.F. James, “An Inter-laboratory Comparison of Measurements from Filament-Stretching Rheometers Using Common Test Fluids,” Journal of Rheology, 45 (2001) 83-114.

4. S.L. Anna, G.H. McKinley, “Elasto-Capillary Thinning and Breakup of Model Elastic Liquids,” Journal of Rheology, 45 (2001) 115-138.

5. S.L. Anna, N. Bontoux, and H.A. Stone, “Formation of dispersions using ‘flow-focusing’ in microchannels,” Applied Physics Letters, 82 (2003) 364-366.

6. D.R. Link, S.L. Anna, H.A. Stone, and D.A. Weitz, “Geometrically-Mediated Breakup of Drops in Microfluidic Devices,” Physical Review Letters, 92 (2004) 054503. Re-published in Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science and Technology, 9 (7) Feb. 23, 2004.

7. S. Shojaei-Zadeh and S.L. Anna, “Role of Surface Anchoring and Geometric Confinement on Focal Conic Textures in Smectic-A Liquid Crystals,” Langmuir 22 (2006) 9986-93.

8. S.L. Anna and H.C. Mayer, “Microscale Tipstreaming in a Microfluidic Flow Focusing Device,” Physics of Fluids, 18 (2006) 121512.

9. G.F. Christopher and S.L. Anna, “Microfluidic methods for generating continuous droplet streams,” Journal of Physics D – Applied Physics, 40 (2007) R319-R336.

10. S.L. Anna and G.H. McKinley, “Effect of a controlled pre-deformation history on extensional viscosity of dilute polymer solutions,” Rheologica Acta, 47 (2008), 841-859.

11. G.F. Christopher, N.N. Noharuddin, J.A. Taylor and S.L. Anna, “Experimental observations of the squeezing-to-dripping transition in microfluidic T-junctions,” Physical Review E, 78 (2008) 036317. Re-published in Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science and Technology, 18 (13) Sep 29, 2008.

12. G.F. Christopher, J. Bergstein, N.B. End, C. Nguyen, and S.L. Anna, “Splitting and Coalescence of Droplets at Microfluidic Junctions,” Lab on a Chip (2009) DOI: 10.1039/B813062K.

13. S. Shojaei-Zadeh and S.L. Anna, “Highly Uniform Micro-Cavity Arrays in Flexible Elastomer Film,” Soft Matter (2009) DOI: 10.1039/b808109c.

14. W. Lee, L.M. Walker and S.L. Anna, “Role of Geometry and Fluid Properties in Droplet and Thread Formation Processes in Planar Flow Focusing,” Phys. Fluids 21, 032103 (2009); DOI:10.1063/1.3081407

15. G.F. Christopher and S.L. Anna, “Passive Breakup of Viscoelastic Droplets and Filament Self-Thinning at a Microfluidic T-Junction,” J. Rheol. Volume 53, Issue 3, pp. 663-683 (May/June 2009)

16. N.J. Alvarez, L.M. Walker, and S.L. Anna, “A Non-Gradient Based algorithm for the Determination of Surface Tension from a Pendant Drop: Application to Low Bond Number Shapes,” Journal of Colloid and Interface Science Volume 333, Issue 2, 15 May 2009, Pages 557-562

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