Victor Francia

Research Associate

Victor is a Chemical Engineer from Universidad de Salamanca, Spain, and holds other qualifications in environmental science and humanitarian fields. After graduating he worked in corporate R&D (Manager, P&G, UK), and management of water infrastructures (Engineer, Acciona, Spain) and then moved into academia. He obtained a professional doctorate in engineering, EngD, working for P&G and University of Birmingham on agglomeration during spray drying in collaboration with academics in Leeds, Sheffield and Imperial College London. He joined Imperial as visiting researcher in 2012/13 on multiphase flow modelling and later worked as consultant (Hexxcell Ltd. spin off Imperial College London, UK) for the oil & gas industry e.g. ExxonMobil, on optimization and modelling of fouling in crude oil refineries. In 2016, Victor joined the group of Prof Coppens at UCL to work on dynamic self-organization in collaboration with Prof Miodownic (Institute of Making).

Research and projects

1. Robust, adaptive and self-healing materials
2. Pattern formation in pulsed fluidized beds

Victor’s research at the CNIE focuses in how individual interactions in a discrete phase develop a complex collective behaviour that give rise to time or spatial patterns in macroscopic structures or flows. Taking inspiration from self-assembly mechanisms in nature e.g. fractal growth of bacterial colonies, crystallization or snow, Victors looks into ways to engineer self-adaptive materials that can rearrange their morphology in response to a changing environment. Design of dynamic structures open the way to develop advance technologies in heath, manufacturing or energy sectors e.g. drug and catalytic carriers, self-healing / sensing materials and novel process intensification strategies.

More, publication list: https://www.natureinspiredengineering.org.uk/people/dr-victor-francia-garcia

Research interests

• Dynamic self-organization, particle self-assembly.
• Multiphase flow experiments and models.
• Heat transfer and Process Intensification
• Powder technology. Agglomeration, fluidization, drying.
• Wall phenomena and dynamic fouling.
• Turbulence and vortex flows.

Education

EngD. Doctor in Engineering, University of Birmingham, UK.
Expert. International crisis prevention and management, Universidad Carlos III, Spain. Master. Environmental science and international cooperation, EOI, Spain. Chemical Engineer (MEng Equivalent). Universidad de Salamanca, Spain.