EPSRC funding success
23 November 2009
LJMU Reader secures grant to investigate thermal loads on structured media and composites.
Dr Ian Jones, a Reader in Applied Mathematics in the School of Engineering, Technology and Maritime Operations, has been awarded an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council grant (EP/H018239/1) entitled “Asymptotic and numerical modelling of faults and thermal striping in materials with a micro-structure”.
The grant, worth £251,000, will fund a postdoctoral research fellow over three years. LJMU’s Head of Research, Professor Andrew Young, commented: “This is great news and a real achievement as success rates with EPSRC proposals are at an all-time low.”
The proposals were ranked by quality following peer-review and Dr Jones’ proposal was ranked third out of the 49 submitted to the Materials, Mechanical and Medical Engineering Panel, with the top eleven being funded. No other post-1992 university was among the successful eleven.
As the Principal Investigator, Dr Jones is an international expert in thermoelasticity and thermal striping, being the most cited author worldwide in thermal striping. The proposal was strongly supported by Serco Assurance.
In the nuclear and other industries, it has been important to understand theoretically the effect of thermal loads on cracks and other defects in a metallic structure, such as a reactor pressure vessel. Dr Jones has developed mathematical models of such phenomena. Many new materials are now being used to construct components in engineering structures.
This grant will fund the investigation of thermal loads on structured media and composites. Dynamic response involving elastic waves in solids can lead to very interesting and important phenomena e.g. phononic band gaps. Results of the research will be of interest to scientists and engineers working in the design of structural components.
