Computational Engineering: College of Engineering Centenary Scholarship: Definition of the arterial contractility-regulation via multi-physics modelling approach

Subject areas: Computational Engineering

Project description: Cardiovascular disease accounts for 37% of all deaths in the EU (and 45% of all deaths in Europe), and the current pharmacological treatments often require a long period of development and regulatory approval, involving animal and human testing. The proposed PhD project is aiming to produce a model to reduce animal and human testing.

Arterial blood pressure is a key indicator of the human health and it is influenced by a large number of different factors. One of these important parameters is the flow-resistance offered by the small arteries or microcirculation. Such arteries can modulate this resistance by varying the inner diameter in order to optimize blood flow transport and distribution towards organs and tissues.

Aim of this PhD project is to develop and experimentally test a mathematical model able to represent the blood flow regulatory mechanism. This will be integrated with pre-existing framework in order to deliver a computational platform for cardiovascular drug testing. We expect this will lead to advancements in cardiovascular drug design and delivery system, and will significantly reduce the time associated with the drug development and animal and human experimentations.

The successful candidate will be integrated into the Computational Biomedical Engineering Group and will be encouraged to present the work at national and international conferences and promoting new research collaborations.

Project supervisors: Dr A. Coccarelli and Professor P. Nithiarasu

Available resources/facilities: Linux Cluster

Eligibility
Candidates should hold a first or upper second class (2.1) honours degree in engineering, physics or mathematics or a relevant subject area (Computational Fluid Dynamics, Biomedical Engineering).

We would normally expect the academic and English Language requirements to be met by point of application. For details on the University’s English Language entry requirements, please visit – http://www.swansea.ac.uk/admissions/englishlanguagerequirements/

The scholarship covers the full cost of tuition fees and an annual stipend for UK/EU candidates but tuition fees only for international candidates.