Unsteady Aerodynamics and Acoustics for Practical Biological Applications.

Aerodynamics and Acoustics are mature fields, but their application to practical biological applications has been limited and is a high impact area for future research. In particular the fluid dynamics and aerodynamics of flows within the human body, and the mechanisms by which these flows generate and propagate sound is an open question. Understanding these flows, the generation of sounds and the nonlinear systems that govern the propagation of these sounds through human tissue is the first aim of this research project. This will involve analytical and numerical modelling as well as experiments performed in collaboration with hospitals. The second and ultimate aim is to use an improved understanding of the above-described systems to develop the modern equivalent of a stethoscope, a device that revolutionised clinical medicine when it was introduced 200 years ago. The development of this clinical technology will require not only an improved understanding of the physics of the systems, but also engineering design to develop a device that employs sensors and instrumentation, machine learning and physical insight into a clinical technology that will be present cheap and readily available alternative to other medical imaging techniques.