User:KurtBlueSky/sandbox

Kurt Liffman
Kurt Liffman is a physicist/inventor born (1960) in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Australia. His Father was the musician and tenor singer Erich Liffmann. He studied Mathematics and Physics at the University of Melbourne and completed his PhD in planetary science and astrophysics at Rice University in 1988 under the supervision of Donald D Clayton.

Medical Physics
Working with the vascular surgeon Michael Lawrence-Brown, Liffman developed the force equations for endoluminal stent grafts that are used for the endovascular aneurysm repair of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm. These equations are used to calculate the displacement forces on the stent graft and so assist surgical teams to design stent grafts that enhance the durability of the stent graft. He and Lawrence-Brown developed the photocurable endoluminal graft in 2006.

Granular Material
Particles that are placed in a rotating, horizontal cylinder may be subject to segregation. In particular, for particles with the same density, the smaller particles will tend to move to the central axis of the system. Similarly, for particles of approximately the same size, but different densities, the higher density material will move to the central axis. Liffman and physicist/inventor Guy Metcalfe used this behaviour to invent the rotational classifier. The rotational classifier is a device that can separate dry granular material in terms of size and density. One potential use of the device is in the mineral sands industry for the dry separation of Ilmenite and sand.

Numerical Methods
Liffman developed a Direct Simulation Monte Carlo Method for cluster coagulation and a Chebyshev polynomial collocation spectral method for solving the Helmholtz Equation.

Stardust Transport and Survival
In the late 1980's, Liffman and Donald D Clayton used a Monte-Carlo model of the interstellar medium to predict that roughly 10% of isotopically anomalous dust produced from supernovae could survive the rigours of the interstellar medium and end up in primitive meteorites. By the late 1990's, at least four different supernovae dust grains had been discovered.

Gravitational Radius of an Irradiated Disk
Protostellar disks that are subject to X-ray and Ultraviolet light irradiation undergo a process called photoevaporation. Photoevaporation dissipates protostellar disks over time. The gravitational radius is the distance from the protostar, where the disk starts to evaporate. Between the disk and the gravitational radius, the disk tends not to evaporate, beyond this distance, the disk tends to evaporate. Liffman derived the currently used form of this scale length. Due to the removal of disk material at the gravitational radius, it has been suggested that some migrating exoplanets come to a stable position in or near the gravitational radius.