This course has been designed to reflect the wide applications of Computational Fluid Dynamics. You will learn to understand, write and apply CFD methods across a wide broad range of fields, from aerospace, turbomachinery, multi-phase flow and heat transfer, to microflows, environmental flows and fluid-structure interaction problems. Tailor your course by choosing from a range of specialist modules covering application-specific methods and techniques.
Designed to meet the education needs of graduates and professional engineers who are looking to kick-start an industrial or research career in the rapidly growing field of Computational Fluid Dynamics. This course bridges the gap between the introductory level of undergraduate courses and the applied expertise acquired by engineers using CFD in industry. You will gain the knowledge and appreciation of CFD methods necessary for a strong foundation to a career in this exciting engineering discipline.
The MSc in Computational Fluid Dynamics provides a solid background so that you will be able to apply CFD methods as a tool for design, analysis and engineering applications. With a strong emphasis on understanding and application of the underlying methods, enthusiastic students will be able to write their own CFD codes during the course.
Sharing some modules with the MSc in Aerospace Dynamics gives you the opportunity to interact with students from other disciplines. In recent years, our students have been had the opportunity for work-based placements at the Aircraft Research Association (ARA), European Space Agency (ESA), Ricardo and DAF Trucks.
Our strategic links with industry ensures that all of the materials taught on the course are relevant, timely and meet the needs of organisations competing within the computational analysis sector. This industry led education makes Cranfield graduates some of the most desirable for companies to recruit.
The Industrial Advisory Panel is comprised of senior industry professionals provides input into the curriculum in order to improve the employment prospects of our graduates.
The MSc in Computational Fluid Dynamics will meet, in part, the exemplifying academic benchmark requirements for registration as a Chartered Engineer. Accredited MSc graduates who also have a BEng (Hons) accredited for CEng will be able to show that they have satisfied the educational base for CEng registration.
The taught modules are delivered from October to April via a combination of structured lectures, and computer based labs.
The core part of the course consists of modules which are considered to represent the necessary foundation subject material. The course is designed to reflect the broad range of CFD applications by providing a range of optional modules to address specific application areas. Students on the part-time programme will complete all of the compulsory modules based on a flexible schedule that will be agreed with the course director.
Individual project
The taught element of the course finishes in May, at which point you will have an excellent understanding of CFD methods and applications. From May to September you will work full-time on your individual research project. The research project gives you the opportunity to produce a detailed piece of work either in close collaboration with industry, or on a particular topic which you are passionate about.
Recent Individual Research Projects include:
Assessment
Taught modules 50%, Individual research project 50%
Strategic industrial links ensure that the course meets the needs of the organisations competing within the computational sector therefore making our graduates some of the most desirable in the world for companies to recruit. An increasing demand for CFD specialists with in depth technical knowledge and practical skills within a wide range of sectors has seen our graduates employed by leading companies including:
Roughly one third of our graduates go on to register for PhD degrees, many on the basis of their MSc individual research project. Thesis topics are often supplied by individual companies on in-company problems with a view to employment after graduation - an approach that is being actively encouraged by a growing number of industries.
A comprehensive training in the theory and practice of groundwater science and engineering, providing an excellent basis for careers in scientific, engineering and environmental consultancies, water companies, major industries, research, and government scientific and regulatory services in the UK and abroad.
Modules encompass the full range of groundwater studies and are supported by practical field sessions and computing and hydrogeological modelling based on industry standard software.
This is a vocational programme relevant to graduates with good Honours degrees in appropriate subjects (for example, Geosciences, Engineering, Physics, Mathematics, Chemistry, Biosciences, and Environmental Sciences). It is important to have a good knowledge of mathematics.
The lecture component of the programme encompasses the full range of hydrogeology. Modules cover drilling, well design, aquifer test analysis, laboratory test analysis, groundwater flow, hydrogeophysics, inorganic chemistry of groundwaters, organic contamination of groundwater, contaminated land and remediation, groundwater modelling, contaminant transport, hydrology, and groundwater resources assessment.
These lecture modules are supported by practical field sessions, and by computing and hydrogeological modelling based on industry standard software. Integration of concepts developed in the taught programmes is facilitated through student-centred investigations of current issues linked to a diverse range of hydrogeological environments.
Examinations are held in January and April. From May onwards, you undertake a project, a report on which is submitted in September.
Projects may be field-, laboratory-, or modelling- based, and are usually of an applied nature, although a few are research-orientated. Our chemical (inorganic and organic), rock testing, computing, geophysical and borehole-logging equipment is available for you to use during this period.
Career openings include those with consulting engineering and environmental firms, government scientific services and regional water companies, both in this country and abroad. Demand for hydrogeologists is substantial and students from the course are highly regarded by employers.
Hydrogeology is the study of groundwater; an essential component of the world’s water supply. More than 2 billion people depend on groundwater for their daily needs (approximately 30% of water supplied in the UK is groundwater).
The aim of our Hydrogeology MSc Course is to provide students who have a good scientific or engineering background with a comprehensive training in the fundamentals of groundwater science and engineering, together with considerable practical experience.
The School is well supported and you will have the use of all equipment and facilities appropriate to your work:
Computing
You will have access to the multiple clusters of PCs in the University Learning Centre and Library, and the School-based Earth Imaging Laboratory. The MSc course also has its own dedicated room for teaching and study with six PCs for convenient access to email, web and on-line learning resources.
The University based computers have an extensive range of software installed that covers the needs of students of all disciplines, but in common with the School-based PCs, specialist software packages used routinely by professional hydrogeologists are installed for our MSc students. These include industry standard groundwater flow modelling, contaminant transport modelling, geochemical modelling, geophysical interpretation and field and laboratory hydraulic test analysis packages. You can also register for more specialist software on the University high speed BlueBEAR computing facility if your individual project requires it. Research software developed within the Water Sciences research group is also available.
Laboratories
The School is well equipped for inorganic and organic chemical analysis of field and laboratory samples. Facilities include: Total Organic Carbon analysis, Gas Chromatography, ICP Mass Spectrometry, Ion Chromatography, Stable Isotope Mass Spectrometry and Luminescence and UV/visible spectroscopy. These facilities have been used in a wide range of MSc projects, for both standard geochemical analysis of groundwater samples and for more specific purposes including studies of persistent organic pollutants and toxic heavy metals in the environment, and denitrification in river beds.
The School also has a dedicated microbiology laboratory equipped with an autoclave for sterilizing media and equipment, a class II safety cabinet for handing microbial samples, and incubators.
Facilities are also available within the School and elsewhere for geological material analysis, including thin section preparation and microscopy, a wide range of electron microscopy techniques, XRD, pore size distribution determination, and surface area measurement.
Fieldwork
The School has two field sites on campus for use by MSc students and research staff. Both consist of arrays of boreholes drilled into the underlying sandstone aquifer to depths of up to 60m.
The groundwater group is well stocked with field equipment, which is used extensively in research projects, for teaching, and particularly on individual MSc projects. This equipment includes pumping test equipment (submersible pumps, generators, packers, digital pressure transducers, data loggers, divers, dip meters, pipe-work and installation frames); chemical sampling and tracer transport equipment (depth samplers, sampling pumps, tracer test equipment and field fluorimeter, hand held EC, pH and EH probes, portable chemical lab kit); geophysical equipment (resistivity imaging, electromagnetic surveying, ground penetrating radar, and borehole logging); and a secure, towable, mobile laboratory for off-site testing.
Fieldwork and projects transform theory into practice and form a large part of the course. They are supported by extensive field, laboratory and technical facilities.
A weeklong course of practical work and site visits is held in Week 7 of the Autumn Term. The content varies from year to year, but typically includes pumping tests, small-scale field tests, chemical sampling, and geophysics using the research boreholes on campus. Visits to landfill sites, water resources schemes, wetlands, and drilling sites are also arranged in collaboration with the Environment Agency, consultants and landfill operators. During the Spring Term, field demonstrations are provided by chemical sampling equipment distributors and manufacturers. You will gain further field experience either during your own 4.5 month project or when helping your colleagues on other projects.
