History

2007 – present Lecturer (RCUK fellow) in Computational Biomedical Engineering in the Civil and Computational Engineering Centre at Swansea University

2005 – 2007 Research Fellow (Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship) in the Aeronautics Department at Imperial College London

2001 – 2005 PhD in the Biomedical Engineering Department at Eindhoven University of Technology

1995 – 2001 BSc, MSc in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Eindhoven University of Technology

From 1995 until 2001 I did my BSc and MSc in Mechanical Engineering at the Eindhoven University of Technology graduating in the group of Prof. Frank Baaijens. My graduation work was on the development of a finite element code that could describe the three-dimensional swelling behaviour of porous tissues and clays using the theory of mixtures.

After that I started my PhD in the Bioengineering department in the group of Prof. Frans van de Vosse. The subject of my research was to develop a fluid-structure interaction method that could be used for heart valve modelling. In 2005 I received my PhD on this topic.

As a Marie Curie fellow I started work in the group of Spencer Sherwin in the Aeronautics Department at Imperial College London. The research focused on a further development and understanding of numerical techniques and models concerning the fluid-structure interaction of heart valves.

In addition I collaborated with the Tissue Engineering group, led by Patricia Taylor, Adrian Chester and Sir Magdi Yacoub, at the Heart Science Centre in Harefield. In collaboration with Chris Bowles I contributed to the optimisation of a bioreactor for tissue engineered heart valves.

Currently I work on various problems related to biomechanics and biofluid flow. My main collaborators are Igor Sazonov and Perumal Nithiarasu in the College of Engineering and Jason Xie in the Computer Science department.   

Research Grants

Publications

• R.L.TBevan, I. Sazonov, P. Nithiarasu, R. van Loon, H. Luckraz, M. Collins, <span id="articletitle">Influences of domain extensions to a moderately stenosed patient-specific carotid bifurcation. Investigation of wall quantities</span>, Int. J. Num. Meth. Heat & Flow, <b>Accepted</b>, (2010)
• I. Sazonov, S.Y. Yeo, R.L.T Bevan, X. Xie, R. van Loon, P. Nithiarasu, Modelling pipeline for subject-specific arterial blood flow - a review, Int. J. Num. Meth. Biomed. Engng., Accepted, (2011)
• R.L.T. Bevan, I. Sazonov, P. Nithiarasu, R. van Loon, H. Luckraz, M. Collins, Influences of domain extensions to a moderately stenosed patient-specific carotid bifurcation. Investigation of wall quantities, Int. J. Num. Meth. Heat & Flow, Accepted, (2010)
• C.T. Bowles, S. New, R. van Loon, S.A. Dreger, G. Biglino, C. Chan, K.H. Parker, A.H. Chester, M.H. Yacoub, P.M. Taylor, Hydrodynamic evaluation of a bioreactor for tissue engineering heart valves, Cardiovasc. Eng. & Technol., DOI: 10.1007/s13239-010-0007-5, (2010)
• R.L.T. Bevan, P. Nithiarasu, R. van Loon, I. Sazonov, H.Luckraz, A. Garnham, Application of a locally conservative Galerkin (LCG) method for modelling blood flow through a patient-specific carotid bifurcation, Int. J. Num. Meth. Fluids, DOI: 10.1002/fld.2313, (2010)
• I. Sazonov, P.H. Saksono, P. Nithiarasu, R. van Loon, H. Luckraz, S. Ashraf, Patient-specific blood flow simulation through an aneurismal thoracic aorta with a folded neck, Int. J. Num. Meth. Biomed. Eng. , Accepted, (2010)
• R. van Loon, Towards computational modelling of aortic aortic stenosis, Int. J. Num. Meth. Biomed. Eng., DOI: 10.1002/cnm.1270, (2010)
• R. Bevan, R. van Loon, P. Nithiarasu, The locally conservative Galerkin (LCG) method – a discontinuous methodology applied to a continuous framework, Adv. Appl. Math. Mech., 1, (2009)
• P. Vos, R. van Loon, S.J. Sherwin, A comparison of fictitious domain methods appropriate for spectral/hp element discretisations, Comp. Meth. Appl. Mech. Engng., 197, 2275-2289, (2008)
• R. van Loon, P.D. Anderson, F.N. van de Vosse, S.J. Sherwin, Comparison of various fluid-structure methods for deformable bodies, Computers and Structures, 85, 833-843, (2007)
• R. van Loon, P.D. Anderson, F.N. van de Vosse, A fluid-structure interaction method with solid-rigid contact for heart valve dynamics, J. Comp. Phys., 217, 806-823, (2006)
• R. van Loon, A 3D method for modelling the fluid-structure of heart valve, PhD-thesis, ISBN 90-386-2687-8, University Press, Eindhoven University of Technology, (2005)
• R. van Loon, P.D. Anderson, F.P.T. Baaijens, F.N. van de Vosse, A three-dimensional fluid-structure interaction model for heart valve modelling, C.R. Mecanique, 333, 856-866, (2005)
• R. van Loon, P.D. Anderson, J. de Hart, F.P.T. Baaijens, A combined fictitious domain/adaptive meshing method for fluid-structure interaction in heart valves, Int. J. Num. Meth. Fluids, 533-544, (2004)
• J.M. Huyghe, R. van Loon, F.P.T. Baaijens, Fluid-solid mixtures and electrochemomechanics: the symplicity of Lagrangian mixture theory, Comp. Appl. Math., 23(2-3), 235-258, (2004)
• R. van Loon, J.M.R.J. Huyghe, M.W. Wijlaars, F.P.T. Baaijens, 3D FE implementation of an incompressible quadriphasic mixture model, Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng, 57, 1243-1258, (2003)
• J.M.R.J. Huyghe, R. van Loon, F.P.T. Baaijens, P.M. van Kemenade, T.H. Smit, We all are porous media, in Poromechanics II, Book Chapter, ISBN 9058093948 (2002)