2010 Grant Balance - Swansea University

This bid is focussed on the strategic support of a number of EPSRC focussed research areas within the College of Engineering. This is as a result of an invitation by EPSRC to utilise the unspent balances on EPSRC grants in support of strategic research areas within the University. Four areas have been identified :

(1). Bridging support for High Performance Computing in the context of Computational Engineering;

(2). Bridging Funds in Computational Rheology;

(3) Bridging XL30 Tungsten Source Scanning Electron Microscope - Service Contract: and

(4) INCA to Aztec EDX Software and Systems upgrade to include the Energy 350 capability.

The first component supports the transition of the powerful computational engineering research groups from the existing cluster based systems to the new IBM HPC systems recently procured by the University and impacts upon all aspects of finite element based computational research at Swansea including Aerospace, Civil, Mechanical, Chemical, Medical, Water, Nano and Advanced Materials. The second, relates to bridging support of a key researcher in the Computational Rheology group. The third to Bridging the service contract on the XL30 Scanning Electron Microscope and the fourth to updating the advanced instrumental facilities for sophisticated materials charaterisation in both the Materials and Nano research areas. This equipment is used for Particle Detection, Analysis and Classification, Steel Inclusion Analysis, and the Measurement of composition and thickness of thin films.

This application for funds is related to the unspent 2010 Grant Balance. The application is focussed on a strategic investment in the College of Engineering in the areas of High Performance Computing (HPC), Computational Rheology and Materials Research. These areas of research activity reflect key priorities identified by EPSRC and also support the strategic research agenda identified by the University. The successful application of this funding will underpin and strengthen these key areas of Engineering and enhance the interdisciplinary opportunities in HPC, Rheology and the Materials sector in relation to supporting collaboration between the Colleges of Engineering, Science and Medicine.