Research Student Project
Supervisor name & contact details:
Dr Fergal Boyle
School of Mechanical & Design Engineering
Email: fergal.boyle@dit.ie
Research Centre Name and Website (if
applicable)
Please indicate if the intention is to transfer
from the Masters programme to the PhD
programme (if applicable)
Yes
Please indicate if the project is suitable for a
self-funded student
Yes
No
No


Funding Agency
DIT - Fiosraigh Programme
Scholarship Details
The scholarship will support a full-time PhD
student and includes an annual stipend of
€16,000 and €2,000 for project costs. The
duration of the scholarship is four years.
Subject Area
Mechanical/Biomedical Engineering
Title of the Project
Blood: A software tool for physiologicallyrealistic
blood
flow
modelling
for
cardiovascular-system medical-device design
Project Description (max 300 words)
Blood consists of liquid plasma in which three types of cellular element are suspended: red blood
cells (RBCs), white blood cells and platelets. RBCs are the most abundant, accounting for 99% of
all suspended cellular elements. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) numerical modelling is
routinely employed in the design of cardiovascular-system medical devices. In this modelling
blood is always treated as a continuum fluid, e.g. like water, and the cellular elements are
omitted. This omission has been tolerated to date but has contributed to sub-optimal medical
device design and detrimental consequences, e.g. coronary stent restenosis and prosthetic heart
valve thrombosis.
The aim of this project is to develop a CFD software tool for numerically predicting medical
device haemodynamics where blood is treated as a heterogeneous fluid, specifically a RBCcontaining plasma. This development is now possible due to the level of understanding that exists
of RBC structural behaviour, the improvements in CFD algorithms over the past several years, and
the massive computing potential of recently introduced general-purpose graphical processing
units. Such a tool will lead to a step change in the accuracy of medical-device haemodynamic
analyses, improved medical device design and performance, improved patient clinical outcomes,
and reduced healthcare system costs.
Please indicate the student requirements for this project
The ideal candidate will have a first class honours (or equivalent) degree in Mechanical or
Biomedical Engineering and will have a strong interest in medical device design and bio-fluid
dynamics. The ideal candidate will also have a strong interest in, and aptitude for, numerical
simulation and in particular for the programming of numerical methods and software
development.
Deadline to submit applications (only for
funded projects)
June 30th, 2015