Nathan Kirk "Simulation of Cardiac Electromechanical Activity"

Abstract

The heart is essentially an electromechanical pump. It is the rapid propagation of electrical activation through cardiac tissue that initiates its contraction, but its electrical behaviour is influenced by the resulting mechanical activity.

Research in to these processes uses computational models to simulate the cardiac electrical activity and couple these with models of cardiac tissue mechanical properties. This work is done with a view to the better understanding of cardiac problems, most notably ventricular fibrillation, a lethal arrhythmia that claims up to 60,000 lives per year in the UK.

This seminar will include an introduction to cardiac modelling, the progression of my work to date in this field and my plans for future work.

Sarfraz "Elastohydrodynamic lubrication"

Abstract

Lubricants plays an important role to reduce friction and wear of components in mechanical systems such as engines and compressors. Therefore it is necessary for both the designers of lubricants and components to analyse the properties of these systems. Both experimental and numerical work can be carried out but numerical modelling is considered a quicker and more efficient way in this regard.

My work presents the study of the application of the finite element method to this problem. A typical hydrodynamic lubrication result is considered. Grid transfer methods and penalty methods for determination of the cavitation boundary are discussed. In the general EHL case the elastic deformation of the surface can be calculated by a direct integral method for a reduced problem. An alternative is to use a finite element method to solve the full linear elasticity problem.

This seminar will present results for a 2-d linear elasticity problem, using the example of deflection of a cantilever beam, and will include my plans for future work.