PhD Studentship: Flow Dynamics of Industrially Relevant Two-phase Particle-liquid Suspensions

Funding is available to fully support a PhD research student (including university tuition fees and salary tax free). The candidate must be a UK citizen due to funding requirements and should have at least a strong upper second-class (2.1) degree in chemical engineering or related discipline such as mechanical engineering, maths and physics. The project provides a unique opportunity to train a student in advanced research techniques and equip him/her with a wide range of skills that will enhance his/her employability by a wide spectrum of industries including food, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, energy, environmental, minerals, biomedical etc. Enquiries about the research project should be addressed to Professor M. Barigou (m.barigou@bham.ac.uk).

The movement of particle-liquid suspensions in pipes and vessels of various scales is a generic complex problem. Industries dependent on particle-liquid flow are numerous including chemicals, consumer goods, food, pharmaceuticals, oil, mining, river engineering, construction, power generation, biotechnology and biomedical. The work will address computational modelling aspects of the project, which may include numerical simulations (e.g. CFD, SPH, DEM, Matlab) depending on the candidate’s background and interests. Model testing and validation will use unique experimental data from the technique of Lagrangian Positron Emission Particle Tracking (PEPT) as well as other advanced Eulerian optical laser flow imaging techniques, e.g. particle imaging velocimetry (PIV), ERT. The project is suitable for a student with keen interest in computational work and modelling techniques.

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