Personal statement
My research interests lie in using applied mathematics to solve real-world problems. Rather than studying detailed models of a particular system, I consider simple, but physically founded, models with the aim elucidating the fundamental mechanisms that control phenomena such as the evolution of porous media as a result of reactive natural convection processes, and the behaviour of both isotropic and anisotropic fluids (liquid crystals) under the influence of an electric field.
Research interests
Problems I have worked on include:
- Reative convection in an evolving porous layer
- High Rayleigh number convection in a porous medium
- Deformation of nearly hemipsherical and thin drops of isotropic fluid under the influence of an electric field
Professional activities
- Viscoplastic Fluids: From Theory to Application
- Participant
- 30/5/2016
- 29th Scottish Fluid Mechanics Meeting
- Participant
- 20/5/2016
- IMA ECM Spring Conference 2016
- Speaker
- 5/3/2016
- Applied Mathematics Seminar
- Invited speaker
- 17/2/2016
- 7th FreeFem++ Days
- Participant
- 15/12/2015
- IMA ECM Autumn Conference 2015
- Participant
- 3/11/2015
More professional activities
Projects
- Mechanistic modelling of smouldering remediation to evaluate its effects on soil properties and interactions with groundwater
- Pritchard, David (Principal Investigator) Switzer, Christine (Principal Investigator) Corson, Lindsey (Principal Investigator)
- 01-Jan-2015 - 16-Jan-2017
- Anisotropic liquid dielectrophoresis and interfacial forces
- Wilson, Stephen (Principal Investigator) Brown, Carl (Academic) Tsakonas, Costas (Academic) Duffy, Brian (Co-investigator) Mottram, Nigel (Co-investigator) Corson, Lindsey (Researcher)
- There is a growing technology-driven interest in using external influences to move or shape small quantities of liquids, a process that is referred to as microfluidic actuation. Using electrical, rather than mechanical, forces to achieve this actuation is convenient because this involves relatively simple device architectures that contain no moving parts. Existing non-mechanical microfluidic actuation techniques that are driven by the application of a voltage include electrowetting, which only works with conducting liquids, and dielectrophoresis, which works with both conducting and non-conducting liquids. We have previously shown how dielectrophoresis forces in non-conducting isotropic liquids can be used to create not only forced wetting and liquid spreading, but also liquid film wrinkling in which an engineered electric field distribution imprints a replica of itself as a distortion pattern at the liquid-air interface of the film. In this proposal the possibility that liquid dielectrophoresis can lead to added functionality and greater control within a pure anisotropic liquid, i.e. a nematic liquid crystal rather than a simple isotropic liquid, will be investigated. Liquid dielectrophoresis in pure anisotropic liquids has not been studied before, either experimentally or theoretically. Our proposed integrated collaborative experimental and theoretical research approach aims to understand and exploit the forces that can be created within, and at the surface of, free and confined anisotropic liquids when they are subject to electric fields. The proposed research will investigate an exciting new possibility of using anisotropic liquids along with particular confinement geometries which allow voltage controlled actuated microfluidic pumping to be produced even with simplified electrode architectures. Our industrial supporters include Merck Chemicals Ltd, the world-leading researcher, developer and manufacturer of liquid crystals and reactive mesogens, together with Hewlett-Packard and ADT, who are developing the next generation of information displays based on liquid crystal and microfluidic effects.
- 01-Jan-2012 - 28-Jan-2015
More projects
Address
Mathematics and Statistics
Livingstone Tower
Livingstone Tower
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