LIFT is a direct-write microfabrication and micro/nano printing technique that has received much attention in the research communities and industries in recent years. It offers significant advantages over other competing printing methodologies and has potential applications in many high-tech high-value industries. However, questions remain regarding how to select a small set of experimentally controllable parameters to produce the finest, the most uniform, the most desirable single printed feature and print arrays. Despite the extensive and expensive experiments carried out by the applicants and other groups around the world, fundamental understanding of the phenomena involved in LIFT is lacking. This is attributed to the limited spatial and temporal resolutions in experiments and to the fact that many quantities/properties are not directly measurable especially at nanoscales. Crucially, the causal relationships among the various parameters are difficult to establish without an exhaustive number of expensive experiments. Therefore, it is highly desirable to develop theoretical and/or numerical models to capture the essential physics in LIFT so that trends can be predicted more easily and LIFT design more grounded on fundamental physics. Success here will revolutionise key industries that have photonics, plasmonics and microelectronics as their cornerstone.Conventional macroscopic modelling methods do not directly lend the solution to the LIFT problem, due to the truly multiscale and multiphysics features of LIFT. The most promising approach for LIFT is the LBM, which can be viewed as a coarse-grained molecular dynamics approach, albeit with very different numerical algorithms and affordable computational expenses for real-world problems. LBM preserves the microscopic kinetic principles while recovering the full Navier-Stokes equations at the macroscales. Therefore, LBM bridges the microscales and macroscales, which makes it a valuable method for multiscale problems like LIFT. Here, we propose the very first multiscale modelling study of LIFT, supported by existing and further experimental measurements conducted at the state-of-the-art FASTlab facilities in Southampton. This is built upon the recent successes of ours and other researchers in simulating some isolated sub-processes relevant to LIFT using LBM. The novelty and significance of the proposed multiscale LBM approach is its ability to simulate the complete LIFT process including donor material melting, molten droplet formation, droplet growth, transfer, and deposition processes. The model development will proceed in a systematic manner in order of increasing sophistication. First, an isothermal multiphase LBM model will be employed to isolate the multiphase flow dynamics effects from the thermal effects. Then a thermal multiphase LBM will be tested for LIFT processes to determine the capabilities and limitations of the current (pure) LBM methodologies. The focus, however, is to develop a new multiscale LBM approach to study laser heating, donor material melting, heat conduction, thermal expansion and re-solidification. Such a multiscale approach couples LBM seamlessly with a macroscopic Navier-Stokes solver, taking advantage of each method's scale-resolving capability and numerical efficiency in different ranges of the Reynolds and Knudsen numbers. Finally, Marangoni effects will be investigated by incorporating temperature-dependent surface tension into the LBM modelling. The Marangoni effects are believed to affect the final morphology of the printed features but have not been studied in detail before. Throughout the project, the modelling and experimental teams as well as our academic and industrial partners will work closely with each other to ensure timely exchange of ideas, data and information. The final phase is to create the finest optimized features of a single printed dot and print arrays following first principles and modelling guidance.

The Innovative Manufacturing and Construction Research Centre (IMCRC) will undertake a wide variety of work in the Manufacturing, Construction and product design areas. The work will be contained within 5 programmes:1. Transforming Organisations / Providing individuals, organisations, sectors and regions with the dynamic and innovative capability to thrive in a complex and uncertain future2. High Value Assets / Delivering tools, techniques and designs to maximise the through-life value of high capital cost, long life physical assets3. Healthy & Secure Future / Meeting the growing need for products & environments that promote health, safety and security4. Next Generation Technologies / The future materials, processes, production and information systems to deliver products to the customer5. Customised Products / The design and optimisation techniques to deliver customer specific products.Academics within the Loughborough IMCRC have an internationally leading track record in these areas and a history of strong collaborations to gear IMCRC capabilities with the complementary strengths of external groups.Innovative activities are increasingly distributed across the value chain. The impressive scope of the IMCRC helps us mirror this industrial reality, and enhances knowledge transfer. This advantage of the size and diversity of activities within the IMCRC compared with other smaller UK centres gives the Loughborough IMCRC a leading role in this technology and value chain integration area. Loughborough IMCRC as by far the biggest IMRC (in terms of number of academics, researchers and in funding) can take a more holistic approach and has the skills to generate, identify and integrate expertise from elsewhere as required. Therefore, a large proportion of the Centre funding (approximately 50%) will be allocated to Integration projects or Grand Challenges that cover a spectrum of expertise.The Centre covers a wide range of activities from Concept to Creation.The activities of the Centre will take place in collaboration with the world's best researchers in the UK and abroad. The academics within the Centre will be organised into 3 Research Units so that they can be co-ordinated effectively and can cooperate on Programmes.