Professor Ken Walters

Distinguished Research Professor
MSc PhD DSc (Wales) FRS Photograph of Professor Ken Walters.

Contact

Email: kew@aber.ac.uk
Office: 311, Physical Sciences Building, Penglais Campus
Phone: (0)1970 622 750
Fax: (0)1970 622 826

Biography

Ken Walters was educated at the University of Wales, Swansea, where he graduated with 1st class honours in Applied Mathematics in 1956. He was awarded the M Sc degree in 1957 for research into Atmospheric Diffusion and the PhD degree in 1959 for research into Rheology. His supervisor was the late Professor J G Oldroyd. Professor Walters was awarded a D Sc degree by the University of Wales in 1985.

After a year researching and lecturing in the USA, Ken Walters returned to Wales at Aberystwyth University. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1965, Reader in 1970 and was made Professor in 1973. He is currently a Distinguished Research Professor in the Institute of Mathematics and Physics.

Professor Walters was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1991, and, in 1995, he was elected a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Engineering of the United States. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France, in 1998, and by Strathclyde University, Scotland, in 2011. In 2009, Professor Walters accepted an invitation to become a Founding Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales. In 2010, Professor Walters accepted an invitation to become a member of the Science Advisory Council for Wales (SACW)

Between 1974-76, Professor Walters was President of the British Society of Rheology and received a Gold Medal from the Society in 1984. From 1996-2000, he was the (first) President of the European Society of Rheology, and, between 2000-2004, he was Chairman of the International Committee on Rheology. In 2002, Professor Walters received the Weissenberg Award from the European Society of Rheology.

Professor Walters has written 5 books and over 150 research papers. He was Executive Editor of the Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics from its launch in 1976 until the publication of Vol. 100 in 2002.

Staff Publications

BOOKS

  • “Rheometry” by K Walters, Chapman and Hall, London 1975, x + 277pp.
  • “Rheometry : Industrial Applications” Edited by K Walters.  J Wiley and Sons, 1980, vi + 418pp.
  • “Numerical Simulation of non-Newtonian Flow” by M J Crochet, A R Davies and K Walters, Elsevier, 1984, xiii + 352pp.
  • “An Introduction to Rheology” by H A Barnes, J F Hutton and K Walters, Elsevier 1989 ix + 199pp.  Chinese translation 1991.  Korean translation 2000.
  • “Rheological Phenomena in Focus” by D V Boger and K Walters, Elsevier, 1993, x + 156pp.
  • “Rheology: An Historical Perspective” by R I Tanner and K Walters, Elsevier, 1998, x + 255pp.
  • “Rheology Reviews: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006” Edited by K Walters and D M Binding. British Society of Rheology.

RECENT RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS

  • “Rheological influences on the splashing experiment”.  J non-Newt Fl Mech 86, 185-210, 1999. (with J M Cheny).
  • “Experimental dilemmas in non-Newtonian fluid mechanics and their theoretical resolution”.  Proc. Korean Rheology Conference 99  in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the Korean Society of Rheology 21-40, 1999.  Korea-Australia Rheology Journal 12, 27-38, 2000 (with D V Boger).
  • “On the two-dimensional splashing experiment for Newtonian and slightly elastic liquids”.  J non-Newt Fl Mech 97, 233-250, 2001. (with S Nigen).
  • “Cavitation effects in eccentric-cylinder flows of Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids”.  Chem Eng   Science 56, 5565-5574, 2001. (with D M Binding and N Ashrafi).
  • “Viscoelastic contraction flow: comparison of axisymmetric and planar configurations”.  J non-Newt Fl Mech 102, 343-359 (2002) (with S Nigen).
  • “The distinctive CFD challenges of Computational Rheology”.  European Congress on Computational     Methods in Applied Sciences and Engineering ECCOMAS Computational Fluid Dynamics Conference 2001, Sept 2001, 1-25. Int. J. Numer. Meth. Fluids 2003; 43:577-596 (with M F Webster).
  • “The Oscillatory Squeeze Flow Rheometer: Comprehensive theory and a new experimental facility”         Rheologica Acta 46, 111-121, 2006 (with D Bell and D M Binding)
  • “A rheological ‘ocean of truth’”. Proc. SASOR 2006, Cape Town, 24-27 September 2006, 13-22.
  • “The Oscillatory Squeeze Flow Rheometer: Comprehensive theory and a new experimental facility”         Rheologica Acta 46, 111-121, 2006 (with D Bell and D M Binding)
  • “Die-swell, splashing drop and a numerical technique for solving the Oldroyd B model axisymmetric free-surface flows”.   J. non-Newt. Fl. Mech 141,148-166, (2007).  (with M F Tome,  L Grossi,  A Castelo,  J A Cuminato and S McKee).
  • “The White-Metzner model – Then and Now”, Proceedings of the 25th Annual Meeting of the Polymer Processing Society, Goa, India, March 1 – 5, 2009, IL 02, 1 – 14. (with M.F. Webster and H.R. Tamaddon-Jahromi).
  • “The numerical simulation of some contraction flows of highly elastic liquids and their impact on the relevance of the Couette correction in extensional rheology”. Chemical Engineering Science 64 (2009), 4632 – 4639. (with M.F.Webster and H.R.Tamaddon-Jahromi).
  • “The competing roles of extensional viscosity and normal stress differences in complex flows of elastic liquids”, Proceedings of the 20th Anniversary Symposium of the Korean Society of Rheology, Seoul, Korea, August 19 – 22, 2009, 3 – 31. Published in the Korea-Australia Rheology Journal Vol. 21, No.4, 2009, 225 – 233 (with H.R.Tamaddon-Jahromi, M.F.Webster, M.F.Tome and S.M.McKee).
  • “Predicting numerically the large increases in extra pressure drop when Boger fluids flow through axisymmetric contractions”, Natural Science 2 (2010), 1 – 11. (with M.F.Webster and H.R.Tamaddon-Jahromi).