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This Case Study builds on our sustained effort since 1981 to understand the nature of steel to an extent that enables the quantitative design of novel alloys and processes. In 1997 this led to the development of Super Bainite high-performance armour steel with an internal structure distinguished by an unprecedentedly high population density of interfaces. In 2011 this was licensed to Tata Steel who started manufacture at their Port Talbot, South Wales plant. The steel is destined for armoured vehicles. In a perforated design it has higher ballistic mass efficiency and is less expensive than conventional armour. The work at Port Talbot has re-established UK sovereign production of high-performance steel armour, after a gap of over 20 years.
Some of the most significant and widely used products for steel framed buildings in the global construction market today have been developed by the Structural & Geotechnical Engineering Research Centre at City University London. Our work in this field has permitted a saving of between 25 and 30% in the amount of steel needed for such buildings, making them now on average 9% cheaper than their concrete equivalents. Our research data from this work is now incorporated into at least six Design Guides and two significant industry software suites, published by the Steel Construction Institute (SCI) [text removed for publication]. Steel frame build times have been reduced by up to 13% and the resulting buildings can be 20-50% more energy efficient, helping the industry move towards its `Target Zero' carbon goals.
The dynamic response of steel members and floor systems has been a key concern in the industry over the last decade. The work undertaken at City has been effective in helping bring new products to market and in improving the application of structural mechanics to real design situations. It has also made a significant contribution to the increasing success of the steel industry in the UK commercial building market.
As academic lead partner Professor Ogden and his team at Oxford Brookes University were responsible for a major research programme focusing on the development of light steel construction technology. Major industry funding in conjunction with EU support, facilitated a detailed understanding of the technology, and various demonstration projects including the then largest light steel framed building in Europe, constructed at Oxford Brookes University. The results of the work have been adopted by industry in order to innovate novel construction solutions. As a consequence light steel framing is now the favoured method of construction across the entire modular off-site buildings sector and in other mass market construction applications including site-built structural framing and infill walling. The value of the market that that has emerged in the UK during the census period is estimated to be £78 million per annum.
Many operations in daily life, from manufacturing to running a hospital, need to optimise the return on use of resources where volume and value are conditions. Scheduling theory tackles some of the hardest practical optimisation problems, not known to be solvable in reasonable computation time. Strusevich and Kellerer have been able to reformulate practical scheduling challenges as `knapsack problems' - dealing with volume and value constraints - and then design approximation algorithms which can be applied back to the original challenge. The work has attracted EPSRC funding, stimulated a new field of research which is developing fast, been widely published, led to presentations at international conferences including the 2009 Computers and Industrial Engineering conference attended by industry practitioners and is impacting on Combinatorial Optimisation research.
University of Nottingham research into a composite design for steel beams and floor slabs has resulted in environmental and economic benefits and an important change in the construction industry. The work has reduced the weight of beams and the overall tonnage of buildings, enabled easier installation and improved structural strength. More than 40 projects, with a total combined floor area in excess of 380,000m2, have used the technology since 2008, and the method's market share has been estimated at up to 60%. The breakthrough has facilitated partnerships between steel frame designers and precast flooring manufacturers, with the value to the latter alone put at more than £5M.
Transport crew scheduling research at Leeds University since 1994 produced optimising algorithms and industry-ready software that led to the spinning out of Tracsis in 2004. The software, including upgrades, is used by over 40 bus and train companies who previously relied on manual processes. A minimum estimate of a £230 million saving in crew costs has been achieved in the UK alone over 2008-31.7.2013. Since 2008, the software has been routinely used by bidders in all UK rail franchise tenders, contributing to cost effective, efficient and reliable rail transport. Success led to the Tracsis floatation in November 2007 (market capitalisation: £46.7 million on 22/5/2013).
Research on designing mathematical methods for optimisation carried out at the University of Southampton has been fundamental to the development of software solutions for transportation problems and has directly led to the growth and commercial success of the niche software company, Logical Transport. Additional beneficiaries are local councils — who have obtained school bus schedules that typically reduced the number of required vehicles by 10-20% and miles driven by 12-15% and have an information management tool for better decision making — and passengers who have experienced improved service quality.
National and International design codes are the key vehicles for enabling structural engineering research to impact on practice. Recent years have seen substantial advancements in such codes for stainless steel structures, to which Imperial has made outstanding contributions [A-E]. Imperial research has led directly to improved structural design provisions, enabling more efficient structures, leading to cost savings [G], further promotion of the use of stainless steel in construction [A,H,I] and a reduction in the use of construction resources. The impact and reach of Imperial's research has not only been throughout the industry (producers [H], code writers [A] and practitioners [G,I]) but also global, with widespread influence on UK, European, North American and Asian practice [A].