Glass is ubiquitous in contemporary society. In fact, we take this fascinating material for granted without giving a thought to how it is manufactured. In some situations it can be treated as a solid while in others, a viscous fluid. Problems concerning the manufacture of drawn glass fibres or the large thin sheets require a blending of analysis, asymptotic methods and numerics, all working in concert, to discern the underlying behaviour. For the last 20 years there has been a concerted effort to develop appropriate models for the glass industry to help them deal with increasingly restrictive tolerances.

Throughout the project a number of modern models will be considered and the background mathematics developed as required. We will consider in particular models of drawing glass into fibres, the formation of sheets and some of the current pressures faces by the glass industry. Methods of modelling classical solids, and linear elastodynamics will form the foundations of the material which will then be used to develop approximate theories and analyzed with a asymptotic and numerical methods that are tuned to the model at hand.

In addition to this, some emphasis will be made concerning the overarching view of information transfer. In particular development of the skills to: (i) 'find the mathematics' within a problem from the glass industry; and (ii) translate mathematical insights of the problem into focussed expertise that is explained in a non-technical way.