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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: EP/I025995/1
Title: New Methods and Analysis for Wave Propagation Problems
Principal Investigator: Spence, Dr EA
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department: Mathematical Sciences
Organisation: University of Bath
Scheme: Postdoc Research Fellowship
Starts: 01 April 2011 Ends: 31 March 2014 Value (£): 206,756
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Continuum Mechanics Numerical Analysis
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
No relevance to Underpinning Sectors
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Panel DatePanel NameOutcome
15 Feb 2011 PDRF Maths Interview Panel Announced
01 Feb 2011 PDRF Maths Sift Panel Announced
Summary on Grant Application Form
Our understanding of wave phenomena underpins many technologies upon which our society depends, for example, radar, sonar, mobile phones, ultrasound, optical fibres, and crack-detection in structures.Many wave phenomena can be described mathematically by Partial Differential Equations'' (PDEs); and information about the physical processes can be obtained by studying these mathematical models. Mathematicians have a toolkit of techniques to study PDEs and extract useful information. This project seeks both to sharpen'' two tools, which the investigator has played a key role in developing, and to combine them, not only with each other, but also with other cutting-edge techniques from different areas of mathematics. This combination will increase the power of these techniques and allow mathematicians to apply them in new situations, further increasing our knowledge of waves.Some examples of problems this project will investigate are:- The scattering of sound and electromagnetic waves from obstacles with sharp corners and edges. These problems are of fundamental importance to many engineering applications, and hence have been extensively studied for many years. However, the current mathematical tools are still not powerful enough to solve many important practical problems.- The propagation of waves through so-called meta-materials'', artificial materials engineered to produce properties not found in nature, and periodic media'', which have applications in photonic crystals used in optical communication.- The detection of cracks in the surface of materials; this is obviously important for testing the integrity of many engineering structures, but in particular nuclear and chemical reactors.
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Organisation Website: http://www.bath.ac.uk