Ciência sem Fronteiras (Science Without Borders)
PhD Project Template:
PI name & contact details:
Department
Professor Andrew Fowler
Andrew.fowler@ul.ie
Mathematics and Statistics
Has project been agreed with head (or
nominee) of proposed registration school?
yes
Research Centre / group affiliation:
Research group / centre website:
MACSI, the Mathematics Applications Consortium for
Science and Industry
http://www.macsi.ul.ie/
PI website / link to CV:
http://www3.ul.ie/fowlera/
Brief summary of PI research / research group / centre activity (2 or 3 lines max):
Andrew Fowler is Stokes Professor of Industrial and Applied Mathematics at UL and a member of
MACSI. His research interests cover a wide range of applications of mathematical modelling in the
applied sciences, including geophysics, biology and industrial problems, and using analytical,
asymptotic and numerical methods of analysis to obtain useful results.
Title & brief description of PhD project (suitable for publication on web):
Two-phase flows and flow regimes
Two-phase flows are common in industry and nature. Fluidised beds, boilers and condensers,
powder snow avalanches, pyroclastic flows and volcanic eruptions are all examples involving the
fluid flow flow of two (or more) different phases. Much industrial interest in two-phase flows arises
from safety concern in the nuclear industry, where the cooling systems used usually involve phase
change and two-phase flow. Boilers and heat exchangers are similar.
Much of the complexity of two-phase flows arises from their various different regimes: bubbly, slug,
churn, annular, and an understanding of what controls the transitions would be of enormous and
fundamental interest, since very little is known about this. This project will aim to develop an
understanding of regime transition, using as its clue the suggestion that regime transition is initiated
by instability in a two-fluid averaged model which harbingers the breakdown of the model as it
becomes ill-posed. This, for example, is thought to underlie the transition of bubbly flow to slug
flow, but very little else is known about this or any of the other transitions.
The methods will rely on a wealth of experimental data to inform the analysis of the development of
instability in suitable averaged two-phase models, and developments of these models will be
studied; for example, to include stochastic coalescence of bubbles in bubbly flow. We will aim to
provide a missing ingredient which can describe explicitly the 'change of state' which occurs in
transition, in analogy with the use of the Van der Waals force is explaining phase transition.
Unique selling points of PhD project in UL:
The University of Limerick is a young, energetic and enterprising University with a proud record of
innovation in education and excellence in research and scholarship. MACSI is Ireland’s leading
industrial and applied mathematics group.
Name & contact details for project queries, if different from PI named above:
Please indicate the graduates of which disciplines that should apply:
mathematics, applied mathematics, engineering, physics or related discipline
Please indicate whether students can apply for:
Sandwich programme only
Full PhD programme only
Either of the above
X
Ciência sem Fronteiras / Science Without Borders Priority Area:
Please indicate the specific programme priority area under which the proposed PhD project fits- choose only
one (tick box):
Engineering and other technological areas
Pure and Natural Sciences (e.g. mathematics, physics, chemistry)
X
Health and Biomedical Sciences
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)
Aerospace
Pharmaceuticals
Oil, Gas and Coal
Renewable Energy
Minerals
Biotechnology
Nanotechnology and New Materials
Technology of prevention and remediation of natural disasters
Biodiversity and Bioprospection
Marine Sciences
Creative Industry
New technologies in constructive engineering