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18 March 1997
For a pilot flying an aircraft it is vital to be able to read the display panels which monitor the plane's height, air speed and other details both clearly and without hesitation. Over time there is a danger that dust combined with humidity and high temperatures may cause components in the display (and other equipment in an aircraft) to fail.
Problems such as this have led to an award of £314, 456 to Dr Paul Tucker, lecturer in the department of applied physics and electronic and mechanical engineering at the University of Dundee, to develop computer modelling techniques which will enable designers to improve equipment reliability.
The project, titled Computer modelling of fluid flow and particle transport in electronics, will concentrate on the use of the most up-to-date computational methods to predict movement of air, heat and hence dust. This will help designers assess their effect on a wide range of electronic equipment such as cockpit displays in aircraft, microwave power supplies and the sensors in cashpoint machines.
£152,000 of the award came from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the rest is sponsorship from five companies - NCR, Hewlett Packard, Digital Equipment Scotland Ltd, Flomerics, and GEC Marconi Avionics. Hewlett Packard also donated a computer worth £16,000.
As well as funding a PhD student and a senior research fellow for three years, the award will complement the £25,000 recently given to Professor Jim Hewit, Director of the Advanced Mechatronics Research Centre in the department of APEME, for an advanced computer laboratory. The new computers have larger memories and can work faster than their ordinary counterparts and can be used for such things as soft computing, running special computer packages, and (in collaboration with civil engineering) creating virtual reality programmes.
Dr Paul Tucker says: 'I feel it is great news for the University to have its advanced computing skills endorsed by this Government funding. The advanced computing lab should provide high quality educational experiences for Dundee University students.'
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