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Professor Kim Parker in the Department of Bioengineering has developed Wave Intensity Analysis (WIA) for characterising pressure and flow waves in arteries. It is being used to assess whether patients need interventions to reduce narrowing of their coronary arteries. Conventional diagnoses require the use of a drug that is costly, time consuming to administer and has unpleasant side effects; it cannot be used in some patient groups. WIA obviates the need for the drug and can be used as the sole diagnostic method in more than half of patients. After being assessed in trials involving >2500 patients, the method became commercially available, and is in routine clinical use in 3 continents. It removes the cost of the drug (which can be US$500 per case in some countries), increases throughput by halving the time taken for the procedure, reduces side effects and makes rigorous diagnosis available to patient groups that cannot tolerate the drug and therefore depended on unreliable, imaging-based methods until now.
The impact arises from the study of extreme ocean waves and their interaction with marine structures. It is relevant to the offshore, shipping, coastal and marine renewables industries and has been both economic and regulatory, involving:
(a) The establishment of revised guidelines for the design of new structures / vessels.
(b) Enhancing best practice, both from an economic and a safety perspective.
(c) Reducing the uncertainty in critical design issues, thereby improving overall reliability.
(d) Enabling "end-of-life" extensions for existing structures.
(e) Facilitating the effective decommissioning of redundant structures.
(f) Contributing to the development of new industrial R&D equipment, thereby assisting specialist UK manufacturers to secure international orders.
Guidelines and standards underpinned by Strathclyde research have improved the design, assessment and the safety of marine structures subjected to wave impact in large steep waves. The guidelines and standards are widely used in the design of floating structures, particularly Floating Production, Storage and Offloading vessels (FPSOs) and offshore wind turbines. Since January 2008 the work has impacted the design, strength assessment and failure analysis of fixed offshore oil and gas platforms, renewable energy devices and ships. The guidelines and standards are used by designers to mitigate against damage caused by breaking wave impact, thereby improving the safety of mariners and offshore workers, reducing lost production due to downtime, and cutting the risk of environmental impact due to oil pollution. The research has also been used by Strathclyde researchers in industry-focussed studies, in legal work related to the loss of the oil tanker Prestige (2009-2013), in the assessment of the Schiehallion FPSO for BP (2010), and design of a Scottish harbour wave screen (2009) that allows ferries to access and stay in the harbour in more severe weather.
Examples are provided of significant impact by the Centre for Mathematical Modelling and Flow Analysis (CMMFA) upon the Marine Renewables and Offshore Wind communities. In particular, CMMFA informed the design of a novel wave energy converter being commercialised for connection to the national grid. CMMFA has also contributed to a study of the design parameters for an offshore wind power station as part of a larger interdisciplinary collaborative research effort. This work responds to and informs the RCUK Energy Programme via underpinning research, capacity building and provision of trained personnel thus enacting UK Government Energy Policy.
Large-amplitude horizontally propagating internal solitary waves commonly occur in the interior of the ocean. This case study presents evidence to demonstrate the impact of research conducted by Professor Grimshaw at Loughborough University on the development and utilisation of Korteweg- de Vries (KdV) models of these waves, which has formed the paradigm for the theoretical modelling and practical prediction of these waves.
These waves are highly significant for sediment transport, continental shelf biology and interior ocean mixing, while their associated currents cause strong forces on marine platforms, underwater pipelines and submersibles, and the strong distortion of the density field has a severe impact on acoustic signalling.
The theory developed at Loughborough University has had substantial impact on the strategies developed by marine and naval engineers and scientists in dealing with these issues.
Edinburgh Designs Ltd., (EDL) was spun-out to exploit ERPE research from the original Wave Power Group. With six staff and an annual turnover approaching £2M EDL has supplied the equipment and control systems for wave tanks in 19 countries including the world's largest computer-controlled wave test facility, the US Navy Manoeuvring and Station Keeping Tank. They are currently completing the world's first circular tank, combining waves with currents in any relative direction, which is operated by the 6 person company, "FloWave" EDL, still run by the founding staff, it is the world-leading supplier of wave-making technology for scientific and recreational facilities.
Research by Professor Vardy's team on unsteady pipe-flows has found direct application in road/rail tunnel design practice and in offshore engineering. The impact is exemplified by Vardy's participation in the design of many of the world's longest road and rail tunnels and in his work with industry on the detection and location of blockages in offshore pipelines. His flagship software ThermoTun, which predicts transient velocities, pressures and temperatures in complex train:tunnel systems, is licensed internationally by several major engineering consultancies and his software (MPVC) controls ventilation systems in seven Japanese road tunnels. His oil pipeline software (PipePulse) is used currently in the offshore oil industry to identify and clear flow obstructions in pipelines.
Research on extreme value methods by Heffernan and Tawn at Lancaster, which proved critical in determining the conclusions of the High Court's investigation of the sinking of the M.V. Derbyshire, also identified that design standards for the strength of hatch covers of ocean-going carriers (bulk carriers, ore carriers and combination carriers) needed to be increased by 35%. This new level was set as a worldwide mandatory standard in 2004. During the REF census period this change has impacted on the design of 1720 new carriers and strengthening for the 5830 in service. There have been no sinkings of ocean-going bulk carriers since the new design standards were introduced in 2004, whereas on past evidence over 100 such sinkings of ocean-going bulk carriers would have been expected in the REF census period.
The Warner-McIntyre parametrization scheme for non-topographic atmospheric gravity waves, developed at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP), University of Cambridge, during the period from 1993 to 2004, has since 2010 been used by the UK Met Office in their operational models for seasonal forecasting and climate prediction .The parametrization is regarded by the Met Office as a vital part of improved representation of the stratosphere in those models, which in turn has been shown to lead to significant operational benefits.
Research by Professor John Thuburn and his group at the University of Exeter has made several key contributions to the formulation and development of ENDGame, the new dynamical core of the Met Office weather and climate prediction model. ENDGame has been shown to deliver improved accuracy and better computational performance at high processor counts compared to the current operational dynamical core, directly impacting the technological tools available to the Met Office. These improvements will benefit users when ENDGame becomes operational in early 2014: the economic value to the UK of the weather forecasts produced by the Met Office has been estimated to be in excess of £600M pa, while climate change projections inform policy decisions on mitigation and adaptation with huge economic implications.