Dr Alison Ramage

Reference No.: AR/AMS1

Supervisors:

• Dr Alison Ramage
• Dr Andre Sonnet

Date Advertised: 6th February 2007

Please contact Dr Alison Ramage for further information.

Liquid crystals are fluids that show local orientational order.

The interplay between orientation and flow in these substances is very intricate and can lead to interesting macroscopic phenomena, many of which are not yet fully understood.

A particular example is the pattern formation that can occur in polymeric liquid crystals under flow.

This is an industrially important effect that influences, eg, the stability of items produced by moulding.

Flow is also important in certain types of liquid crystal displays.

The project will involve both theoretical modelling and development and implementation of numerical methods for the solution of the generalised Stokes and Navier-Stokes equations that govern the flow.

This project is suitable for students who have taken both the Numerical Analysis and Fluid Mechanics classes.

No previous aquaintance with Liquid Crystals is assumed.

Reference No.: CASE1

Supervisor: Dr Alison Ramage

stipend from £13,290

• Date Advertised: 1st October 2009
• Start Date: 1st January 2010

Please contact Dr Alison Ramage for further information.

An EPSRC-funded Industrial Case PhD studentship is available to develop new preconditioned linear solvers for large-scale problems in geotechnical engineering. The project, starting on or after 1st October 2009, is in association with the Industrial Mathematics Knowledge Transfer Network. The research will be undertaken within the Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing group in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Strathclyde, supervised by Dr Alison Ramage. Please see http://www.mathstat.strath.ac.uk/research/groups/nasc for details of the group's research. The industrial partner is Oasys Ltd (http://www.oasys-software.com/), which is the software house of Arup (a global organisation of consulting engineers, planners and project managers working in all areas of the built environment, infrastructure, transportation, water, vehicle engineering etc).

The student will be part of a continuing project with Dr Charles Augarde, School of Engineering, Durham University, which aims to develop numerical linear algebra techniques that will move geotechnical engineers closer to their goal of carrying out large-scale 3D analyses on a reasonable timescale. The key difficulties met in developing iterative solvers for geomechanics arise from the variety of material models used, and the range of stiffnesses obtained from modelling soil-structure interaction and effects such as yielding. The aim of this research project is to find faster iterative solvers for the complex material models routinely found in geotechnics, and disseminate them widely across the geotechnical community. The new methods will be implemented in SAFE, Oasys' commercial finite element code, which is part of the GEO suite of state-of-the-art software capable of analysing virtually any geotechnical problem. The project will place the student at the forefront of research in iterative solvers, and provide an excellent opportunity to develop skills working at the interface between applied mathematics, engineering and industry.

Applicants should have, or be expecting to obtain in the near future, a first class or good 2.1 honours degree (or equivalent) in mathematics, engineering or a mathematical science. The studentship is available for UK/EU candidates subject to specific eligibility criteria (see http://www.strath.ac.uk/dta/furtherinformation/eligibility/). In addition to the payment of fees (UK/EU) for the duration of each project (3.5 years), each award includes provision for a student maintenance grant at the standard EPSRC rate (£13,290 for the first year of study, the level will be reviewed annually). The student will spend some time working at Oasys' Newcastle upon Tyne office during the period of the award. Details of how to apply can be found at http://www.mathstat.strath.ac.uk/applying/postgraduate/applications.

Informal enquiries should be addressed to Dr Alison Ramage [+44 (0)141 5483801, e-mail: A.Ramage@strath.ac.uk].