Cranfield University

• Home 
• School home
• Departments
• Applied Mathematics and Computing

News 2009

November 2009

Future of Collaboration with Kitakyushu University

Steve James took part in a symposium to discuss the next stage of the fruitful collaboration between Cranfield University and the Universities on the Kitakyushu Science and Research Park in Kitakyushu, Japan. Representatives of Cranfield University, Kitakyushu University, Waseda University and Kitakyushu Institute of Technology reviewed past and on-going collaborative research, and, in a panel discussion, explored the options for consolidating current successes and building new collaborations. The audience was drawn from the Universities, local industries and from local government. 

October 2009

Member of the Board

Ralph Tatam has been elected to sit on the Board of Directors of SPIE. 

You take the high road.... to the 20^th International Conference on Optical Fiber Sensors 

June 2009

EPG involved in 2 Framework 7 projects

• The ADVITAC (ADVanced Integrated TAil Cone) project funded by the European Commission officially started on May 25th, 2009.  The partners (Daher Aerospace, NLR, INASMET, Cranfield University, Coriolis Composites, Embraer, RECOMET Impex and Free Field Technologies) gathered at Daher's headquarters in Montrichard on May 28th to launch the project. The aim of the ADVITAC programme is to build a composite tail cone, 3m long by 150cm in diameter, equipped with the APU system for business jets and regional aircraft.  The EPG is involved in the development of approaches, based on optical fibre sensors, to monitor the cure of the composite materials, subsequently using the sensors for  structural health and usage monitoring. The length of the programme will be 42 months and has an overall cost  estimated at 8M Euros, 50% of the finance is provided from the European Commission.
  
  
• PMNIDEA (Predictive maintenance employing non-intrusive inspection & data analysis) brings together TU Delft, Manchester Metropolitan University, Cranfield University, D'Appolonia SPA, Mer Mer SPA, Politecnico Milano, Stagecoach Group, Plc. Societe des Tranports Intercommunaux de Bruxelles SSF, Agenzia per la Mobilita del Comune di Roma SPA, Tramwaje Warszawskie Sp. Zoo, Corus UK Ltd, Alstom Transport S.A., TSTG Schienen Technik GMBH, Dynamics, Strutctures and Systems International Ltd and Bytronics Automation Ltd.The project has two key drivers; firstly to contribute towards the realisation of a 24 x 7 railway by minimising the disruption caused by activities such as inspection, remedial and reactive maintenance, and track renewal. Secondly, the introduction of novel sensor and inspection technologies that focuses more on the monitoring of degradation through the measurement of deviation from identified benchmark data known as a signature tune. Both these drivers promote the use of urban transport, and tramways in particular, which contributes to lowering congestion and the impact on the environment.The EPG will be exploiting fibre Bragg grating technology for the measurement of strain in critical components.
  

Ralph sits on SAT

Ralph Tatam has been asked to sit on the Strategic Advisory Team of EPSRC's Materials, Mechanical and Medical Engineering progamme. The M3E programme funds research and training in engineering to support the health of the discipline and to provide skills and knowledge for future needs.

Invited paper

Ralph Tatam has been invited to present the EPG's work on the use of fibre optic imaging bundles in laser based flow measurement, optical coherence tomography and speckle interferometry at the 14^th OptoElectronics and Communications Conference (OECC) 2009, to be held in Hong Kong, July 2009.

• Optical Sensing with Coherent Imaging Fibre bundles
  R P Tatam
  Invited Paper
  To be presented at the 14th OptoElectronics and Communications Conference (OECC) 2009, Hong Kong.

Impact Factor

The impact factor of Optics and Laser Technology, the journal edited by Steve James, increased  for the 2nd consecutive year. The Impact Factor is now 0.892.

May 2009

Well Read

The EPG's review paper on optical fibre long period gratings, published in 2003, is among the 30 most read articles of 2008 in Measurement Science and Technology. The paper, which was downloaded 627 times in 2008, and has been downloaded 3842 times since it was published, is available free for all to access for the rest of 2009.

Optical fibre long-period grating sensors: characteristics and application
Stephen W James and Ralph P Tatam
Meas. Sci. Technol. 14 No 5 (May 2003) R49-R61
www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/0957-0233/14/5/201

An image from this paper was used on the cover of the May 2003 edition of Measurement Science and Technology

April 2009

PhD Success

Ricardo Correia's successful viva was the first step in what could be a very eventful year. 

March 2009

PhD Success

Congratulations go to Dackson Masiyano for successfully defending his thesis, and for including a reference to the work of Bob Marley. 

Paper in IOP Select

The EPG's recent paper on Planar Doppler Velocimetry, an image from which graces the front cover of the issue of Measurement Science and Technology in which it was published (see news item below), has been chosen to appear in IOP Select. IOP Select is a free service from IOP Journals comprising articles chosen by Editors for their novelty, significance and potential impact on future research.

Three-component planar velocity measurements using Mach-Zehnder interferometric filter based planar Doppler velocimetry (MZI-PDV)
Z-H Lu, T O H Charrett and R P Tatam
Measurement Science and Technology , 20 03019 (2009)

Hold The Front Page

The cover of the special issue of Measurement Science and Technology from OFS 19 is graced by a photograph of the fibre imaging bundles used by the EPG in its work on planar Doppler velocimetry and speckle interferometry. 

The special issue, which was co-edited by Ralph Tatam, contains two publications from the EPG based on work that was presented at OFS 19:

• Response of the transmission spectrum of tapered optical fibres to the deposition of a nanostructured coating
  R Jarzebinska, S W James and R P Tatam
  Measurement Science and Technology 20, 034001 (2009)

   

• Three-component planar velocity measurements using Mach-Zehnder interferometric filter based planar Doppler velocimetry (MZI-PDV)
  Z-H Lu, T O H Charrett and R P Tatam
  Measurement Science and Technology , 20 03019 (2009)

February

PhD Success

Congratulations to Georgios Sarantavgas, who successfully defended his thesis on OCT.

January

Do you know the way to .. BIOS 2009 in San Jose.

Helen Ford does, which is a good thing, as she had to present her work on the use of fibre optic imaging bundles in OCT.

Coherent fibre bundles in full-field swept-source OCT
H D Ford and R P Tatam
Presented at BiOS (Part of SPIE Photonics West)
San Jose,USA, January 2009
SPIE 7168-96 (2009)