Understanding the pattern formation from an evaporating plasma drop by simulation

The desiccated pattern of a colloidal drop is always uneven. In this thesis, we use simulation method to explore the material distribution in an evaporating colloidal drop and further the understanding of the drop desiccation process. We find that by controlling the air humidity, the inter-particle aggregation and the ionic strength in the solution, the desiccation pattern will become flatter, which could be applied in material preparation. Also, the stress distribution and the rate of the crack growth are numerically obtained, which could be potentially applied in medical diagnoses by analyzing the crack pattern of the desiccated drop.