C.J. Chapman

Biography

I am a Tutor, a Member of the Senior Management Team of the School of Computing and Applied Mathematics and a Member of the Board of the Research Institute for the Environment, Physical Sciences, and Applied Mathematics (EPSAM).

I was a student at Cambridge University, where I obtained a first-class honours degree in Mathematics and was later a Fellow of Christ's College. This college is the subject of C. P. Snow's novel 'The Masters'. I obtained a PhD in Applied Mathematics at Bristol University, on a topic in fluid dynamics. While working at Keele, I have written a text-book, High Speed Flow, published by Cambridge University Press in 2000. I have been interested in mathematics since I was a school-boy; I taught myself calculus from a book called `Calculus made easy' about a year before we came to the subject in class (the author was right: he did make it easy). For two years I worked in the nuclear power industry, where I did `real-life' applied mathematics on the safety of nuclear reactors. I have spent four periods of three months working in the USA, and I make regular research visits to Denmark.

Research and scholarship

My research is in fluid dynamics, wave theory, acoustics and vibration, and asymptotic methods. In particular, my work on thermal convection in geophysical fluid dynamics led to a nonlinear equation sometimes called the Chapman-Proctor equation. I have worked on aeroacoustics, especially the noise produced by rapidly rotating fans in aircraft engines; for this purpose I invented a technique called time-domain asymptotics, which has been developed further by other research-workers. My current research is mostly on fluid-structure interaction in conditions of heavy fluid loading. The single most important technique in my research work is the approximate solution of coupled systems of partial differential equations. For further information, see my personal web page. I am a member of the Research Institute for the Environment, Physical Sciences, and Applied Mathematics (EPSAM).

Teaching

• MAT-20005: Dynamics

• MAT-30004: Fluid Mechanics 

Admin Roles

Deputy Academic Conduct Officer

Research themes

• Fluid Dynamics and Acoustics

• Theoretical Solid Mechanics