This grant will provide a unique blast and impact diagnostics laboratory open to UK universities and industry. The aim of the laboratory is to provide a safe environment in which to conduct high explosive and fragment/ballistic tests, whilst allowing the highest possible spectrum of data to be collected. Multi-parameter, multi-spatial diagnostics are crucial to our understanding of the physical processes that govern these events and will provide validation data for the current effort worldwide in the development of mitigation/protective systems and the numerical modelling of such processes, with the goal of increasing levels of protection and saving lives. The aim of the laboratory is to provide diagnostic capabilities across a range of scales where traditional large-scale testing is either impossible or very expensive. There is still a fundamental lack of understanding of the mechanisms which generate the loading very close to an explosive, and perhaps, more importantly, the effect that both materials and structural systems can have on the developed load. The laboratory will provide ultra-high-speed optical diagnostics of both the expanding explosive fireball and the resulting interactions with adjacent structural systems. The dual cameras will allow the deflection of these systems to be quantified, providing performance metrics and validation data. Most experimental research on the measurement of blast loading uses highly simplified geometric scenarios. But real-world blast threats must be considered in complex settings, such as dense urban cityscapes. Numerical modelling tools are regularly used to predict loading and damage in these scenarios but there is very little high-quality experimental data available to validate these model outputs and we do not know how the detail of the geometry affects the loading. In fact, this problem is ideally suited to research at small-scale, making use of well-established scaling laws to inform practical full-scale analyses. The ultra-high-speed cameras, combined with image tracking approaches will allow us to track the shock fronts through 3D printed models of real urban spaces generating low cost, high fidelity data with which to appraise modelling approaches. Computational modelling of blast and ballistic events, from detonation to contact with targets, have made huge advances in the past few decades. However, experimental research has not kept pace with the development of powerful but often unvalidated computational modelling tools. Detailed experimental investigation that could transform both the quantitative and qualitative understanding of these events are rarely even considered, let alone conducted, because of the high speeds and intense loads involved. The new laboratory, combined with the existing capability at the University of Sheffield in the recording of near-field blast loading (MaCE EPSRC grant), will provide validation data to interrogate the ability of numerical models to both predict blast/ballistic loading and the response of materials/structures to this loading. These benefits will be delivered by a combination of ultra-high-speed digital image correlation to determine target response, along with the thermometry/spectroscopy of the explosive fireball/impact, and flash x-ray to understand the often-hidden internal mechanics. With better knowledge of blast and ballistic effects comes the ability to develop new and innovative systems for the protection of vehicles (aircraft and armoured platforms), personnel (demining/counter-improvised explosive device equipment and body armour), and structures (critical structural elements, buried infrastructure) where the traditional defence of maintaining distance between an explosive threat and an object is not possible.

Deaths and injuries from the effects of land-mines are common results of both active war-zones and post-conflict legacies. Aside from the regular headline-making news when UK armed forces are attacked by IEDs, it has been calculated that some 110 million land-mines are left in post-conflict zones, leading to the death of around 800 people per month and the maiming of many others. Development of protective clothing and footwear, vehicle design and retrofitting systems and efficient mine clearance systems for both active defence and civilian mine-clearance operatives, depends on the accurate assessment of the blast loading produced by the detonation of a shallow-buried explosive. This is a highly complex detonation event, involving the interaction of extremely high-energy shock waves with multiple materials in different phases (soil, air and water). This project aims to develop a deep understanding of how the soil surrounding buried explosives affects the resulting detonation and to develop advanced soil models which describe this behaviour. With a newly applied methodology this project aims to test clays with a high degree of accuracy to develop a dataset that will complement an existing equivalent data for sands and gravels. This will allow a direct comparison between the two soil types to assess the main contributing factors to the blast created during the tests. It has been postulated by other researchers that the resulting impulse given out by a shallow buried explosive is inversely proportional to the shear strength of the soil in which the explosive is buried. This hypothesis is to be tested by developing a new high pressure, high strain rate testing apparatus to shear soils in similar conditions to those experienced in explosive events. This novel apparatus will for the first time be able to investigate the fundamental shear properties of compressible materials. The understanding gained from this project will provide a revolutionary dataset for the modelling of soil-explosive interaction events and lead to developments in protective solutions for both civilian and defence applications.

This grant will deliver a step change in the understanding and predictability of next generation cooling systems to enable the UK to establish a global lead in jet engine and hypersonic vehicle cooling technology. We aim to make transpiration cooling, recognised as the ultimate convective cooling system, a reality in UK produced jet engines and European hypersonic vehicles. Coolant has the potential to enable higher cycle temperatures (improving efficiency following the 2nd law of thermodynamics) but invariably introduces turbine stage losses (reducing efficiency). Cooling system improvement must enable higher Turbine Entry Temperature (TET) while using the minimum amount of coolant flow to achieve the required component life. For high speed flight, heat transfer is dominated by aerodynamic heating with gas temperatures on re-entry exceeding those at the surface of the sun. Any reduction in heat transfer to the Thermal Protection System will ultimately lead to lower mass, allowing for decreased launch costs Furthermore, the lower temperatures could serve as an enabler for higher performance technologies which are currently temperature limited. The highest temperatures achievable for both jet engines and hypersonic flight are limited by the materials and cooling technology used. The cooling benefits of transpiration flows are well established, but the application of this technology to aerospace in the UK has been prevented by the lack of suitable porous materials and the challenge of accurately modelling both the aerothermal and mechanical stress fields. Our approach will enale the coupling between the flow, thermal and stress fields to be researched simultaneously in an interdisciplinary approach which we believe is essential to arrive at the best transpiration systems. This Progreamme Grant will enable world leaders in their respective fields to work together to solve the combination of cross-disciplinary problems that arise from the application of transpiration cooling, leading to rapid innovations in this technology. The application is timely since the proposed research would enable the UK aerospace industry to capitalise on recent developments in materials, manufacturing capability, experimental facilities/measurement techniques and computational methods to develop the science for the application of transpiration cooling. The High Temperature Research Centre at Birmingham University will provide the means to cast super alloy turbine aerofoils with porosity. The proposed grant would allow innovation in the cast systems arising from combining casting expertise with aerothermal and stress modelling in recent EPSRC funded research programmes. It also builds upon material development of ultra-high temperature ceramics and carbon composites undertaken in EPSRC funded research, by use of controlled porosity and multilayer composites. It will also provide the first opportunity to undertake direct coupling of the flow with the materials (porous and non-porous) at true flight conditions and material temperatures. Recent investment in the UK's wind tunnels under the NWTF programme (EPSRC/ATI funded) at both Oxford University and at Imperial College will allow for direct replication of temperatures and heat fluxes seen in flight and interrogated using advanced laser techniques. Recent development of Fourier superposition in CFD grids for modelling film cooling can now be extended to provide a breakthrough method to predict cooling flow and metal effectiveness for high porosity/transpiration cooling systems. The European Space Agency has recently identified the pressing requirement for alternatives to one-shot ablative Thermal Protection Systems for hypersonic flight. Investment in this area is significant and transpiration cooling has been identified as a promising cooling technology. Rolls-Royce has embarked upon accelerated investment in new technologies for future jet engines including the ADVANCE

Analysis of the effects of high explosive blast loading on structures has applications in transport security, infrastructure assessment and defence protection. Engineers must utilise materials in efficient and effective ways to mitigate loads of extreme magnitudes, acting over milliseconds. But there is a fundamental problem which hampers research and practice in this field; we still do not fully understand the loads generated by a high explosive blast. Scientific characterisation of blast loading was a pressing issue in the middle of the last century, as researchers developed methods to predict the loading from large conventional blasts, and from atomic weapons at relatively long distances from targets. The huge amount of effort expended on this work, and the involvement of some of the world's leading physicists and mathematicians (G.I. Taylor, John von Neumann) reflected the existential nature of that threat. This work was predominately based on studying blast loading on targets at relatively long distances from detonations (far-field). Over the past few decades, whilst great advances have been made in understanding and designing materials to withstand extraordinary loads, experimental characterisation of blast loading itself has not kept pace in three key areas, which this project directly aims to address: Firstly, we don't know the magnitudes of explosive loading on targets very close to a high explosive detonation. Today's terrorist threats are frequently from smaller, focused, close-range explosions. Scenarios such as bombs smuggled onto aircraft, or targeted attacks on key items of critical infrastructure are ones in which such "near-field" loading is potentially devastating. But there is an almost total absence of high quality experimental work on characterising near-field blast loading. Predictions in these safety-critical areas currently rely on extrapolation of simple far-field models, or the use of inadequately validated numerical models. The project will provide new, properly validated, numerical models based on high quality experimental work to address this. This raises the second knowledge gap. Our current models of detonation-to-blast-wave mechanisms are based on simplified assumptions, such as that energy is released essentially instantaneously on detonation. Whilst this appears to work well for the far-field, there are major doubts over its validity in the near-field. This project will bring together blast engineers, high-temperature experimentalists, and energetic chemistry researchers to identify the role of early-stage post-detonation chemical reactions between the explosive fireball and the atmospheric oxygen in releasing energy, and how that affects the subsequent blast loading. The data gathered in the project will allow a new conceptual blast model to be created based on novel experimental analysis. The final knowledge gap is the question of whether blast loading in well-controlled scientific experiments is essentially deterministic or chaotic in nature. Addressing this issue is vital if the blast loading research community is to have the equivalent of a standard wind tunnel or shaking table test. Our preliminary work has led to the hypothesis that there is a region at the boundary between the near- and far-fields, where instabilities in the fireball will lead to large and random spatial and temporal variations in pressure loading, but that either side of this, the loading should be deterministic and determinable. The project will provide the data to validate this hypothesis, thus being able to provide guidance to other researchers in the field. Addressing these gaps, through a programme of multi-disciplinary experimental research, will produce a step change in our understanding of blast loading and our ability to protect against blast threats.

The Scottish Doctoral Training Centre in Condensed Matter Physics, known as the CM-DTC, is an EPSRC-funded Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) addressing the broad field of Condensed Matter Physics (CMP). CMP is a core discipline that underpins many other areas of science, and is one of the Priority Areas for this CDT call. Renewal funding for the CM-DTC will allow five more annual cohorts of PhD students to be recruited, trained and released onto the market. They will be highly educated professionals with a knowledge of the field, in depth and in breadth, that will equip them for future leadership in a variety of academic and industrial careers. Condensed Matter Physics research impacts on many other fields of science including engineering, biophysics, photonics, chemistry, and materials science. It is a significant engine for innovation and drives new technologies. Recent examples include the use of liquid crystals for displays including flat-screen and 3D television, and the use of solid-state or polymeric LEDs for power-saving high-illumination lighting systems. Future examples may involve harnessing the potential of graphene (the world's thinnest and strongest sheet-like material), or the creation of exotic low-temperature materials whose properties may enable the design of radically new types of (quantum) computer with which to solve some of the hardest problems of mathematics. The UK's continued ability to deliver transformative technologies of this character requires highly trained CMP researchers such as those the Centre will produce. The proposed training approach is built on a strong framework of taught lecture courses, with core components and a wide choice of electives. This spans the first two years so that PhD research begins alongside the coursework from the outset. It is complemented by hands-on training in areas such as computer-intensive physics and instrument building (including workshop skills and 3D printing). Some lecture courses are delivered in residential schools but most are videoconferenced live, using the well-established infrastructure of SUPA (the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance). Students meet face to face frequently, often for more than one day, at cohort-building events that emphasise teamwork in science, outreach, transferable skills and careers training. National demand for our graduates is demonstrated by the large number of companies and organisations who have chosen to be formally affiliated with our CDT as Industrial Associates. The range of sectors spanned by these Associates is notable. Some, such as e2v and Oxford Instruments, are scientific consultancies and manufacturers of scientific equipment, whom one would expect to be among our core stakeholders. Less obviously, the list also represents scientific publishers, software houses, companies small and large from the energy sector, large multinationals such as Solvay-Rhodia and Siemens, and finance and patent law firms. This demonstrates a key attraction of our graduates: their high levels of core skills, and a hands-on approach to problem solving. These impart a discipline-hopping ability which more focussed training for specific sectors can complement, but not replace. This breadth is prized by employers in a fast-changing environment where years of vocational training can sometimes be undermined very rapidly by unexpected innovation in an apparently unrelated sector. As the UK builds its technological future by funding new CDTs across a range of priority areas, it is vital to include some that focus on core discipline skills, specifically Condensed Matter Physics, rather than the interdisciplinary or semi-vocational training that features in many other CDTs. As well as complementing those important activities today, our highly trained PhD graduates will be equipped to lay the foundations for the research fields (and perhaps some of the industrial sectors) of tomorrow.