Sample projects

• MRes
• PhD

MRes

MRes Project Titles

Projects offered to students in 2014-15

Project	Supervisor / Department
Single and double particle tracking in Direct Numerical Simulation of a turbulent boundary layer	Dr Sylvain Laizet / Aeronautics
New insights into turbulent annular interfacial flows with fluorescence and particle-velocimetry laser-diagnostic techniques	Prof Christos Markides / Chemical Engineering
Structural evolution in quasi-static flow of two-dimensional dense granular systems	Dr Rafi Blumenfeld / Earth Science & Engineering (ESE)
Electrostatically-induced complex interfacial dynamics	Prof Omar Matar / Chemical Engineering
The origin of near-wall streamwise vortices in wall-bounded turbulence: application of generalised optimal perturbation (GOP) theory	Prof Sergei Chernyshenko / Aeronautics
Scattering from underwater targets: the effect of metamaterials	Prof Richard Craster / Mathematics and DSTL
Capillary forces in multi-phase SPH	Prof Stephen Neethling / ESE
Numerical simulation of water sloshing in a rotating tank under low gravity condition	Prof Joaquim Peiro / Aeronautics and European Space Agency
Mass transfer phenomena in the lymphatic system	Prof Jimmy Moore / Bioengineering
Spectral element methods and dynamic anisotropic mesh adaptations for Formula 1 simulations	Prof Spencer Sherwin / Aeronautics and Dr Gerard Gorman / ESE
Hot plumes in Earth's mantle: complexity due to interaction with the mantle transition zone?	Prof Saskia Goes / Earth Science & Engineering
Modelling tissue regeneration as an active fluid	Dr Chiu Fan Lee / Bioengineering
Design of a flow chamber for testing novel theories relating blood flow to arterial disease	Prof Peter Weinberg / Bioengineering
Theoretical and numerical analysis of pulsating flows around bluff bodies	Dr George Papadakis / Aeronautics
Mechanical pumping of growth factors into engineered cartilage	Prof Molly Stevens / Materials
Penguin-inspired low drag skins for Aquatic Micro Aerial Vehicles	Prof Mirko Kovac / Aeronautics
Stochastic swimming of gyrotactic microorganisms in unsteady vortical shear flows	Dr Yongyun Hwang / Aeronautics and Dr Eric Keaveny / Mathematics
Reduced order modelling of porous media and pipeline flows with application to oil and gas production	Prof Christopher Pain / ESE
Modelling the thermoacoustic stability of a premixed flame in a tube combustor	Prof Xuesong Wu / Mathematics and Prof Aimee Morgans / Aeronautics
Reducing the aerodynamic drag of a simplified road vehicle model	Prof Jonathan Morrison / Aeronautics
The hydrodynamics of immiscible multi-fluid viscoelastic shear flows	Prof Demetrios Papageorgiou / Mathematics
Undulatory locomotion in complex heterogeneous media	Dr Eric Keaveny / Mathematics
Direct simulation and modelling of idealised volcanic releases	Dr Maarten van Reeuwijk / Civil & Environmental Engineering and the Met Office
Topology optimization of gas turbines internal coolant flows	Dr Francesco Montomoli / Aeronautics
Active fluid dynamics for drug delivery into the inner ear	Prof Tobias Reichenbach / Bioengineering
A new approach to visualisation and quantification of mixing in large vessels using ultrasound and controlled microbubble destruction	Prof Mengxing Tang / Bioengineering and Prof Peter Vincent / Aeronautics
Compressor surge prediction in heavy-duty diesel engines for off-road machine applications	Prof Ricardo Martinez-Botas / Mechanical Engineering
Predicting combustion instability in an industrial gas turbine combustor	Prof Aimee Morgans / Aeronautics and Prof Bill Jones / Mechanical Engineering
Convection in a curved vertical slot in a horizontal temperature gradient	Prof Jonathan Mestel / Mathematics
Flow between concentric, differentially rotating spheres	Prof Dan Moore / Mathematics
The effect of shear and normal stress on the flow of engineering fluids	Dr Janet Wong / Mechanical Engineering
Controlling fluid flow by sound	Dr James Choi / Bioengineering and Prof Matt Jackson / Earth Science & Engineering
Near wall models for large eddy simulation	Prof Bill Jones / Mechanical Engineering
Development of parallel meshing for aeronautical applications	Prof Joaquim Peiro / Aeronautics and Aircraft Research Association

PhD

PhD Project Titles

Projects offered to students in 2014-15

Project	Supervisors / Departments
Fluid topology optimization and heat transfer	Dr Francesco Montomoli / Aeronautics
Crack propagation in the drying of blood drops	Prof Omar Matar / Chemical Engineering and Prof Richard Craster / Mathematics
Chemokine transport in and around the lymphatic system	Prof Jimmy Moore / Bioengineering and Prof Joaquim Peiro / Aeronautics
Active fluid dynamics for drug delivery into the inner ear	Prof Tobias Reichenbach / Bioengineering and Prof Jonathan Mestel / Mathematics
Understanding Circum-Pacific tectonics: Numerical subduction modelling of variable density plates	Prof Saskia Goes / Earth Science & Engineering (ESE) and Prof Richard Craster / Mathematics
Active fluid mechanics: Actomyosin networks and tissue regeneration	Dr Chiu Fan Lee / Bioengineering and Dr Gunnar Pruessner / Mathematics
Shock waves down the length scales and physiological relevance	Dr Spyros Masouros / Bioengineering and Dr William Proud / Physics
Effect of free-stream turbulence on free shear flows	Dr Sylvain Laizet / Aeronautics and Dr Maarten van Reeuwijk / Civil & Environmental Engineering (CEE)
Adjoint methods for thermoacoustic instability	Prof Peter Schmid / Mathematics and Prof Aimee Morgans / Aeronautics
Development and application of dynamic mesh optimization for numerical simulation of groundwater flow and contaminant transport	Prof Matt Jackson / ESE and Prof Adrian Butler / CEE
Computational and experimental optimization of nutrient transport in mechanically stimulated engineered tissues	Prof Molly Stevens / Materials and Dr Richard Abel / Surgery & Cancer
Development and application of hrp-adaptivity for high performance numerical modelling of multiphase flow on unstructured meshes	Prof Christopher Pain / ESE and Prof Omar Matar / Chemical Engineering
Gulf stream dynamics with primitive equations	Dr Pavel Berloff / Mathematics and Dr Maarten van Reeuwijk / CEE
Spectral element methods and mesh adaptations for Formula 1 simulations	Dr Gerard Gorman / ESE and Prof Spencer Sherwin / Aeronautics
Turbulent wake effects in tidal turbine arrays: A numerical and experimental study	Prof Matt Piggott / ESE and Prof Colin Cotter / Mathematics
Shock/boundary layer interaction unsteadiness in laminar and transitional flows	Dr Paul Bruce / Aeronautics
Concerted fluid thread break-up under microfluidic confinement	Prof Joao Cabral / Chemical Engineering and Prof Richard Craster / Mathematics
Nonlinear stability of immiscible multi-fluid viscoelastic shear flows	Prof Demetrios Papageorgiou / Mathematics and Prof Omar Matar / Chemical Engineering
Nonlinear evolution and acoustic radiation of large-scale coherent structures in turbulent jets	Prof Xuesong Wu / Mathematics and Prof Christos Vassilicos / Aeronautics
New insights into turbulent annular interfacial flows with combined fluorescence and particle-velocimetry laser-diagnostic techniques	Prof Christos Markides / Chemical Engineering and Dr Oliver Buxton / Aeronautics
Lagrangian measurement and calculation of the dispersion of droplets and of their vapour trails in turbulent flows	Prof Alex Taylor / Mechanical Engineering and Prof Christos Vassilicos / Aeronautics
Effect of buoyancy on turbulent entrainment in environmental flows	Dr Maarten van Reeuwijk / CEE and Prof Christos Vassilicos / Aeronautics
Bio-mimetic drag-reduction strategies for multi-modal mobility in nature and robotics	Prof Mirko Kovac / Aeronautics and Prof Omar Matar / Chemical Engineering
What role does blood flow play in the initiation of arterial disease?	Prof Peter Weinberg / Bioengineering, Prof Spencer Sherwin / Aeronautics and Prof Justin Mason / NHLI
Acoustic metamaterials and homogenisation methods	Prof Richard Craster / Mathematics and DSTL
Thermo-acoustic oscillations in industrial gas turbine combustion chambers	Prof Bill Jones / Mechanical Engineering and Siemens
Large eddy simulations of liquid-fuelled combustion under gas turbine conditions	Dr Salvador Navarro-Martinez and Siemens
Low order modelling of thermoacoustic instability in an industrial gas turbine combustor	Prof Aimee Morgans / Aeronautics, Prof Bill Jones / Mechanical Engineering and Siemens
Modelling the effect of small excrescences on wing performance	Dr Shahid Mughal / Mathematics, Prof Spencer Sherwin / Aeronautics and Airbus