Seminars
The CIMR holds regular informal seminars in which researchers from other disciplines or from industry are invited to talk about a problem that they think would benefit from some mathematical expertise. The idea is that these seminars will stimulate interest in the problem, provide some useful insights, and potentially lead to longer-term collaborations with CIMR members.
If you are interested in giving a seminar, or know of someone else who might be, then please get in touch.
Upcoming Seminars
No seminars currently scheduled.
Previous Seminars
- Drug Delivery to the Eye
- Wednesday 16th November, 4pm, SCI 3.05
- Dr Susan Barker (UEA School of Pharmacy)
Conventional eye drops are not ideal as the blink reflex means that a lot of the applied drop is blinked away. This, coupled with tear fluid movement, means that the ocular bioavailability is extremely low. We have been working with a company looking at an alternative approach, i.e. spraying a fine mist of droplets onto the surface of the eye, so as not to trigger the blink reflex and hopefully improve retention on the ocular surface.
We have looked at the potential surface damage caused to the eye by this approach, using pig eyes from the abattoir, and spraying different volumes at different rates from different heights, taking high speed video images. From the videos, it is apparent that the spray is not necessarily homogeneous and that there is some rebound splashing from the surface of the eye. Mathematically, what would be interesting is to look at the flow patterns and assess whether there is an optimum flow pattern to maximise surface coverage and minimise surface damage.
- Emergency Landing of Aircraft on Water (FP7 project SMAES)
- Wednesday 12th October, 4pm, SCI 1.20
- A. Iafrati (INSEAN — The Italian Ship Model Basin) & Alan Tassin (UEA School of Mathematics)
Ditching analysis is requested for large transport aircraft by EASA. The respective requirements are primarily devoted to a minimisation of risks for immediate injuries and the provision of fair chances for an evacuation. A significant part of average air travel is over water and historically a planned or unplanned water-landing event occurs grossly speaking every 5 years. The primary outcome of the SMAES project will be advanced methodologies and simulation tools to support aircraft development from pre-project phase to certification.
These will enhance future innovation in aircraft design through ensuring that innovative designs are compliant with safety requirements. The key developments addressed in the work programme are:
- Improved models for the calculation of ditching loads including both analytical and detailed fluid dynamics models. Inclusion of the effects of the complex flow physics in ditching is critical to prediction of ditching loads.
- Reliable and predictive aircraft models for structural behaviour under dynamic fluid loads.
- Demonstration of the methods on representative future aircraft design concepts.
The consortium brings together aircraft manufacturers, analysis software developers, research organisations and universities. INSEAN is involved in the development of a testing facility at high horizontal speed which will make it possible to test fuselage panels under hydrodynamic loads. UEA is involved in the development of a semi-analytical tool for the calculation of hydrodynamic loads during ditching taking into account structure deformations and complex flow phenomena (suction forces, ventilation, cavitation).
- Study Group Preview
- Friday 13th April, 2:30pm, S1.20
- This will provide an opportunity for UEA people to have an initial think about some of the study group problems that will be presented at the upcoming ESGI 85.
For events from previous years, please see the seminars archive.