Dr Kelvin Lake PhD MEng CEng MIMechE FHEA

Lecturing to full-time and part-time students for the School of Engineering.

Kelvin is the Programme Manager for the full-time provision of the undergraduate courses of BEng Mechanical Engineering, BEng Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering and BEng Energy and Environmental Engineering.

Kelvin graduated from Leeds University in 1999 with a Masters with distinction in Mechanical Engineering. Upon leaving Leeds Kelvin joined Jaguar Cars as a CAE engineer, specialising in vehicle crashworthiness and vehicle NVH.

After a few years at Jaguar, Kelvin left and went travelling around Australia for a year, working for Ford Racing Australia developing the structural roll cage for their V8 SuperCar whilst he was there. Once returning to the U.K. he continued to work in the Automotive industry for various suppliers, before joining Swansea Met in 2007.

These suppliers/OEMs included; Meridian Technology: Where he was accountable for all linear and non-linear FEA to assist in the development of Magnesium high pressure die-cast automotive components in Europe. 

Supporting Business Development to secure new business and Advanced Engineering with product development through to manufacture for many European OEMs including LandRover, BMW, Porsche, Volvo and Fiat. Simpact Engineering: Based at Jaguar Cars, developing rear crash characteristics of vehicles using LS-Dyna and RADIOSS.

Ford Racing Australia: Weight reduction exercises carried out on a V8 Supercar BIW and roll cage, using Optistruct Topology and Topography runs and Nastran optimisation runs. Jaguar Cars: Part of the CAE team carrying out FEA to develop full vehicle crashworthiness and NVH characteristics.

Chartered member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE).

Modules taught include 

• Stress Analysis and Dynamics (Level 5)

• Structural and Fluid Analysis (Level 6)

• Major Project Supervisor (Level 6)

The PhD completed by Kelvin in 2021 was “A Design Methodology for the Utilisation of Structural Orthotropic Composite Materials by Micro-Enterprises” which looks at the impact that FEA and optimisation techniques can have on the design process when used by manufacturers.

Kelvin is an expert in the practical application of Finite Element Analysis and optimisation techniques which he has successfully introduced to various Automotive companies as well as courses and project work at UWTSD. 

2014: ‘Incorporating Optimisation into courses at Swansea Metropolitan, University of Wales: Trinity St. Davids’.  Lake, K. Thomas, R.  A first draft of this paper has been written with a view to submitting this to an Engineering Education Journal.

2014: ‘A Review of the use of Structural Composites in Board Sports such as Kitesurfing and how CAE should be incorporated into the Design Process’.  Lake, K. Williams, O.  Currently under review by the journal of Sports Technology.

2012: ‘The influence of compliant chassis components on motorcycle dynamics: An historical overview and potential future development.’ Lake, K. Thomas, R. Williams, O.  The Journal of Vehicle System Dynamics: International Journal of Vehicle Mechanics and Mobility.

2011: ‘The Application of Optimisation in Making the Design Process More Efficient and Effective.’ Lake, K. Thomas, R. Lawson, T. Gambling, M.   Presented at the 13^th International Conference on Modern Information Technology in the Innovation Processes of the Industrial Enterprises, Trondheim, Norway.

2010: ‘An example of the use of optimisation in the development of high pressure die-cast components & the resulting quantified cost & time benefits’, Lake, K. Thomas, R. Lawson, T. Gambling, M.   International Journal of Engineering Simulation, volume 10, number 3, main article.

2009: ‘The Application of FEA in the Optimisation of Die Cast Components and the Consequent Reduction in Development Costs and Time’. Lake, K. Thomas, R. Lawson, T. Gambling, M.  Presented at the 8^th World Congress on Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimisation, Lisbon, Portugal.

Interests outside of work include ‘extreme’ sports. In the past, this has included skydiving, wakeboarding, downhill mountain biking and climbing. Currently, this includes snowboarding and kitesurfing.

This passion and his experience and expertise feed directly into his research interests and the courses at the University.