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The development of a novel 3D inverse design method for turbomachinery aerodynamic design at UCL has led to important design breakthroughs for pump and compressor applications. The resulting IP and software has been commercialised by a UCL spinout company Advanced Design Technology Ltd (ADT), which is now considered a global leader in advanced turbomachinery design software. Since 2008, the 3D inverse design codes embedded within ADT's TURBOdesign™ suite of software have been adopted by many of the leading turbomachinery equipment manufacturers in Europe, Japan and the US. These companies are using the TURBOdesign suite to achieve significant improvements in the time taken to design their turbomachinery components. It has also helped them unlock major efficiency gains and hence achieve a reduction in CO2 emissions. [text removed for publication]
Commercialisation: Through government grants, institutional and private investors, a medical devices company (Vascular Flow Technologies) was founded.
Products: Spiral Laminar Flow™ Vascular Grafts for use in bypass for peripheral arterial disease and vascular access for haemodialysis.
Market / Sales: Spiral Laminar Flow™ Grafts are sold in 18 countries, with over 3000 grafts implanted (<1% estimated market size) and sales in excess of £1million.
Patient Outcomes: Published and presented clinical series show the grafts have increased survival rates leading to reduced re-interventions and reduced amputations.
Research carried out in the School of Mathematics at the University of Bristol between 1998 and 2005 has been instrumental in the development of structures that arrest or deflect the rapid flow of snow that characterises avalanches in mountainous regions of the world. The research has been embodied in a series of guidance documents for engineers on the design of such structures and many defence dams and barriers have been built across Europe since 2008. The guidance is now adopted as standard practice in many of the countries that experience avalanches. Investment in avalanche defence projects based on the design principles set out in the guidance runs into tens of millions of pounds. The Bristol research is also used internationally in the training of engineers who specialise in avalanche protection schemes. Given the scale of the threat to life and property from these potent natural hazards, the impact of the research is considerable in terms of the societal and economic benefits derived from the reduction of the risk posed by snow avalanches.
Research from the Sheffield Department of Mechanical Engineering has led to major improvements in engineering analysis and design software for aerospace companies such as Rolls-Royce and Airbus. As a result of introducing new practices based on our research, the organisations have reported significantly reduced time input to design components as well as related economic benefits. For example: Rolls-Royce has reported an order of magnitude improvement in the time needed to mesh components. Similarly, by adopting our highly efficient computational aerodynamics solvers, Defence Science & Technology Laboratory has reduced the time its engineers spent evaluating concepts from many days to a few hours.
Research at GCU led to a novel method for backfilling pipeline tunnels providing the ability to fill tunnels three times more quickly than the traditional method resulting in a cost saving of £1.5M on a single project. This approach is now best practice at Murphy Pipelines Ltd (MPL) and features in current tenders to a value of £30M. The change in fill material lowered the carbon footprint by 5000 tonnes in a CEEQUAL award winning project, in addition, the removable fill material allows the recycling and re-use of tunnels, adding to the assets of the company and reducing costs.
Research at the University of Salford directed at the development of a new consumer aerosol without liquefied gas propellant; the Salford Eco-valve, demonstrates the following impact:
This impact is the improvement of aircraft engine efficiency by the application of profiled endwalls to turbine blades. The technology was researched by Durham University and exploited by Rolls-Royce by deploying the technology on airframes. Engines with profiled endwalls include the Trent 900 (A380 airframe), Trent 1000 (787 Airframe) and Trent XWB (A350 airframe). This (as of April 2013) totals around 2000 aircraft engine orders with profiled endwall technology applied. A saving of 1750 litres of fuel per flight from Zurich to Singapore was estimated when profiled endwalls are applied. This gives a 4400 kg reduction in carbon dioxide emissions for such a journey with a fuel cost saving of over $1100. In addition to the environmental benefit and the obvious cash savings for airlines an economic benefit for UK industry has arisen as Rolls-Royce is able to sell engines with a reduced fuel burn as well.
Multiphase flow research at Imperial has developed bespoke software code, and provided unique data for validation of commercial codes used for oil-and-gas design. This research has enabled global oil companies (e.g. Chevron) to undertake successfully the design of deep-water production systems requiring multi-billion pound capital investments. This research has also allowed SPT Group (now owned by Schlumberger), one of the largest software (OLGA) providers to the oil industry, to maintain their position as market leaders.
Our flow modelling and process optimisation research has improved significantly the scientific understanding of key industrial coating, printing and droplet flow systems. We have implemented our research findings in software tools for staff training and process optimisation which have enabled: (i) the worldwide coating industry to improve the productivity and sustainability of their manufacturing processes; (ii) [text removed for publication]; (iii) a major automotive supply company to develop an award-winning droplet filtration system for diesel engines. [text removed for publication].
Rolls-Royce uses the HYDRA computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code for the design of all of its new gas turbine engines. The HYDRA CFD package, including the mathematical theory behind it, was developed by Professor Mike Giles and his research team in the period 1998-2004 at the University of Oxford, and subsequently transferred to Rolls-Royce, forming the basis of the RR corporate CFD strategy with an investment of over 100 person years in development.
Since 2009, HYDRA has become the standard aerodynamic design tool across Rolls-Royce, and has been used to design Rolls-Royce's Trent 1000 engine and the newer Trent XWB. HYDRA has enabled Rolls-Royce to save over [text removed for publication] in test rig expenses, provides superior accuracy compared to its competitors such as FLUENT, and has contributed to increases in engine efficiency of up to [text removed for publication], which in turn has led to higher sales and increased revenue for Rolls-Royce.