An £80,000 grant awarded to a Sheffield Hallam University researcher will be used to address the ways in which complex fluids found in blood and chocolate react with each other – with the potential to make huge efficiency savings.
The EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council), award will allow Dr Tim Spencer, a materials modelling expert from the Materials and Engineering Research Institute at Sheffield Hallam, to develop software to simulate ‘fluids which carry other fluids’.
The software could help factories and healthcare firms to improve a range of processes which can’t be analysed during the day-to-day running of their businesses, by creating a simulated environment to help professionals improve their productivity and knowledge.
Companies currently use a technique called the Lattice Boltzmann simulation method, an advanced technique which makes the predictive modelling of fluids possible in a host of industrial contexts.
Tim’s work will use the method to enable faster and larger simulations needed by industry. He hopes its use could solve a range of issues and open up new and improved processes for companies such as Nestlé and Unilever.
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