Dr Kit Windows-Yule MSci, PhD

Dr. Kit Windows-Yule

School of Chemical Engineering
Associate Professor in Chemical Engineering

Contact details

Email
c.r.windows-yule@bham.ac.uk
View my research portal
Address
School of Chemical Engineering
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Kit Windows-Yule is a Turing Fellow, a two-time Royal Academy of Engineering Industrial Fellow, and an Associate Professor in Chemical Engineering, working jointly with the School of Physics and Astronomy’s Positron Imaging Centre.

Kit’s research interests concern the dynamics of particulate, fluid, and multiphase systems, and the development of novel experimental and numerical methodologies through which these systems can be explored.

He works closely with a number of industrial partners in the chemical (Johnson Matthey, FMC), food (Mondelez), pharmaceutical (AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline), and other (Granutools, IFPEN) sectors, applying these techniques to solve significant open problems in their respective fields.

Using techniques such as Positron Emission Particle Tracking (PEPT), X-Ray Tomography, Particle Tracking Velocimetry (PTV), and Discrete Element Method (DEM) modelling, Kit has studied a diverse range of particulate and multiphase systems, including vibrofluidised and gas-fluidised beds, high shear mixers, rotating tumblers, hopper flows and microgravity systems – which he has been lucky enough to explore both in simulation and experimentally.

Kit is also a part of the Birmingham Plastics Network, an interdisciplinary team of more than 40 academics working together to shape the fate and sustainable future of plastics.  This unique team brings together chemists, environmental scientists, engineers, philosophers, linguists, economists, artists, writers, lawyers, and experts in many other fields, to holistically address the global plastics problem.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Physics, University of Birmingham, 2015
  • MSci Physics, University of Birmingham, 2010

Biography

Kit Windows-Yule graduated with an undergraduate Masters in Physics from the University of Birmingham in 2010 and stayed on to complete his PhD, studying under Professor David Parker in the University’s Positron Imaging Centre (PIC), in 2015. During this time, Kit became an expert in the application of positron emission particle tracking (PEPT) to the study of granular and particulate media.

Following his graduation, Kit travelled to the Netherlands to work in the University of Twente’s Mechanical Engineering faculty, where he acquired a knowledge of numerical methods, in particular the discrete element method (DEM), providing a valuable complement to the experimental methodologies learned in Birmingham.

In 2017, Kit undertook his second postdoctoral post in the Chemical and Biological Engineering institute at the Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany, adding to his repertoire further experimental techniques, including x-ray tomography, x-ray radiography and particle tracking velocimetry (PTV).

Finally, in 2018, he returned to his Alma Mater, to take up his current post as Lecturer in Chemical Engineering.

Teaching

  • 3rd year Multiphase Systems, MS3
  • Foundation year skills

Research

Kit specialises in the experimental imaging and numerical simulation of granular media, powder flows and multiphase systems. He studies particulate systems both from a fundamental and applied standpoint, collaborating both with academic institutions and industrial entities, as well as actively developing the techniques used to study these systems.

Kit has explored, and continues to explore, a range of diverse research topics and systems, including:

  • Granular segregation
  • Granular convection
  • Combined experimental-numerical study of powders, granulates and multiphase systems in rotating drums, vibrofluidised beds and gas-fluidised beds
  • Development of novel applications and capabilities for Positron Emission Particle Tracking
  • Development of novel particle tracking algorithms for x-ray-based and optical imaging techniques
  • Development of DEM models for diverse particulate systems

Publications

  • Windows-Yule, C. R. K., Lanchester, E., Madkins, D., & Parker, D. J., New Insight into Pseudo-Thermal Convection in Vibrofluidised Granular Systems, Nature Scientific Reports (Accepted for publication)
  • Windows-Yule, C. R. K., Van Der Horn, A. J., Tunuguntla, D. R., Parker, D. J., & Thornton, A. R. (2017). Inducing Axial Banding in Bidisperse-by-Density Granular Systems Using Noncylindrical Tumbler Geometries. Physical Review Applied, 8(2), 024010.
  • Windows-Yule, C. R. K., Blackmore, D. L., & Rosato, A. D. (2017). Energy decay in a tapped granular column: Can a one-dimensional toy model provide insight into fully three-dimensional systems?. Physical Review E, 96(4), 042902.
  • Windows-Yule, C. R. K. (2017). Do granular systems obey statistical mechanics? A review of recent work assessing the applicability of equilibrium theory to vibrationally excited granular media. International Journal of Modern Physics B, 31(10), 1742010.
  • Windows-Yule, C. R. K., Scheper, B. J., van der Horn, A. J., Hainsworth, N., Saunders, J., Parker, D. J., & Thornton, A. R. (2016). Understanding and exploiting competing segregation mechanisms in horizontally rotated granular media. New journal of physics, 18(2), 023013.
  • Windows-Yule, C. R. K., Tunuguntla, D. R., & Parker, D. J. (2016). Numerical modelling of granular flows: a reality check. Computational particle mechanics, 3(3), 311-332.
  • Windows-Yule, C. R. K., Scheper, B. J., den Otter, W. K., Parker, D. J., & Thornton, A. R. (2016). Modifying self-assembly and species separation in three-dimensional systems of shape-anisotropic particles. Physical Review E, 93(2), 020901.
  • Rosato, A. D., Zuo, L., Blackmore, D., Wu, H., Horntrop, D. J., Parker, D. J., & Windows-Yule, C. (2016). Tapped granular column dynamics: simulations, experiments and modeling. Computational particle mechanics, 3(3), 333-348.
  • Windows-Yule, C. R. K. (2016). Convection and segregation in fluidised granular systems exposed to two-dimensional vibration. New Journal of Physics, 18(3), 033005.
  • Windows-Yule, K., & Parker, D. (2015). Density-driven segregation in binary and ternary granular systems. KONA Powder and Particle Journal, 32, 163-175.
  • Windows-Yule, C. R. K., Rosato, A. D., Thornton, A. R., & Parker, D. J. (2015). Resonance effects on the dynamics of dense granular beds: achieving optimal energy transfer in vibrated granular systems. New journal of physics, 17(2), 023015.
  • Windows-Yule, C. R. K., Douglas, G. J. M., & Parker, D. J. (2015). Competition between geometrically induced and density-driven segregation mechanisms in vibrofluidized granular systems. Physical Review E, 91(3), 032205.
  • González, S., Windows-Yule, C. R. K., Luding, S., Parker, D. J., & Thornton, A. R. (2015). Forced axial segregation in axially inhomogeneous rotating systems. Physical Review E, 92(2), 022202.
  • Windows-Yule, C. R. K., Rosato, A. D., Parker, D. J., & Thornton, A. R. (2015). Maximizing energy transfer in vibrofluidized granular systems. Physical Review E, 91(5), 052203.
  • Windows-Yule, C. R. K., et al. "Effects of packing density on the segregative behaviors of granular systems." Physical review letters 112.9 (2014): 098001.
  • Windows-Yule, C. R. K., Rivas, N., Parker, D. J., & Thornton, A. R. (2014). Low-frequency oscillations and convective phenomena in a density-inverted vibrofluidized granular system. Physical Review E, 90(6), 062205.
  • Windows-Yule, C. R. K., Weinhart, T., Parker, D. J., & Thornton, A. R. (2014). Influence of thermal convection on density segregation in a vibrated binary granular system. Physical Review E, 89(2), 022202.
  • Windows-Yule, C. R. K., Rosato, A. D., Rivas, N., & Parker, D. J. (2014). Influence of initial conditions on granular dynamics near the jamming transition. New journal of physics, 16(6), 063016.
  • Windows-Yule, C. R. K., & Parker, D. J. (2014). Self-diffusion, local clustering and global segregation in binary granular systems: The role of system geometry. Powder Technology, 261, 133-142.
  • Windows-Yule, C. R. K., & Parker, D. J. (2014). Center of mass scaling in three-dimensional binary granular systems. Physical Review E, 89(6), 062206.
  • Windows-Yule, C. R. K., & Parker, D. J. (2014). Center of mass scaling in three-dimensional binary granular systems. Physical Review E, 89(6), 062206.
  • Windows-Yule, C. R. K., & Parker, D. J. (2014). Inelasticity-induced segregation: Why it matters, when it matters. EPL (Europhysics Letters), 106(6), 64003.
  • Windows-Yule, C. R. K., Maddox, B., & Parker, D. J. (2014). The role of rotational inertia in the dynamics of vibrofluidised granular gases. EPL (Europhysics Letters), 108(5), 58006.
  • Windows-Yule, C. R. K., & Parker, D. J. (2014). Energy non-equipartition in strongly convective granular systems. The European Physical Journal E, 37(3), 17.
  • Windows-Yule, C. R. K., Rivas, N., & Parker, D. J. (2013). Thermal convection and temperature inhomogeneity in a vibrofluidized granular bed: The influence of sidewall dissipation. Physical review letters, 111(3), 038001.
  • Windows-Yule, C. R. K., & Parker, D. J. (2013). Boltzmann statistics in a three-dimensional vibrofluidized granular bed: Idealizing the experimental system. Physical Review E, 87(2), 022211.

View all publications in research portal