Mechanics

Biomechanics

Our research in biomechanics employs principles in mechanics, fluid dynamics and robotics to understand biological systems and develop healthcare technologies. Our work spans multiple scales, from tissue engineering and physiological flows to human movement and rehabilitation. Experimental and computational techniques are used to analyse cardiovascular haemodynamics, including arterial pressure dynamics, and to study musculoskeletal function using motion capture, wearable sensors and gait analysis.

Complementary research in biomaterials, biofabrication and soft robotics supports the development of medical devices, tissue-engineered systems and assistive technologies. Together, these activities integrate modelling, experiments and advanced manufacturing to address challenges in healthcare engineering and personalised medicine.

Foundations and representations in mechanics

Mechanics depends on how physical systems are represented. We advance new physics-based and discrete formulations that treat structure and connectivity as primary, rather than derived from continuum fields. This enables intrinsic multiscale descriptions of deformation, damage and transport in materials and mechanical assemblies.

By linking mathematical foundations with computation and experiment, we provide rigorous and practical frameworks for analysing complex engineering systems. These formulations support scale-bridging calibration, data-informed modelling and the systematic treatment of evolving topology, allowing engineers to predict behaviour in regimes where conventional continuum models lose validity. In doing so, we establish durable foundations for next-generation computational mechanics and engineering design.

Mechanics for fusion engineering

Fusion engineering is defined by demanding mechanics challenges: neutron‑driven defect evolution, steep heat loads, plasma‑surface erosion, and hydrogen isotope trapping that drives embrittlement and fuel‑cycle loss. These effects interact across scales, making lifetime prediction and structural reliability exceptionally difficult.

A digital twin, built from reduced plasma, heat‑transfer and mechanics models, provides a way to explore these coupled behaviours, test assumptions about microstructure, and evaluate operating envelopes rapidly. Our workbench‑scale tokamak serves as an accessible platform to generate well‑controlled pulses and surface‑response data that help validate and calibrate elements of the twin.

This combined approach acts as a stepping stone to national fusion devices and eventually Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP), building the modelling capability, experimental practice and engineering intuition needed for future high‑power facilities.

Vibrations and control

Our researchers are world leaders in the modelling and control of the dynamic performance of engineering structures, focusing on rotating machinery dynamics, structural and machinery health monitoring, vibration control, vibration energy harvesting, and wireless sensing. Among various industry-linked projects, we support the rapidly expanding field of environmentally friendly oil-free turbomachinery technology through experiments and multi-physics modelling and simulation. 

Weld integrity and structural performance

We combine an understanding of the physics of welding processes, metallurgy, computational mechanics and machine learning to assess advanced joining and additive manufacturing technologies and to support safety cases for high-integrity components. We have the unique capability to combine the manufacture of instrumented welds on a scale that is industrially relevant with the characterisation of microstructures and residual stresses, the modelling of microstructural evolution and its validation though the physical simulation of thermomechanical cycles, and the numerical prediction of residual stress distributions validated with through-thickness measurements.

Our partners span a broad range of industry sectors, with a particular focus on current and future (Gen IV) fission reactors and joining challenges for fusion applications.