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Cost savings in the order of £130M over the REF period have been achieved by Rolls-Royce through the improvement of engine reliability of civil and military aero-engines, industrial machines used for electricity generation and gas/oil pumping applications through the use of techniques and processes developed by the Vibration University Technology Centre (UTC) at Imperial College London.
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.
Novel integrated control systems together with their application within a holistic operational strategy have been created as a result of research with Caterpillar. Caterpillar the world's largest manufacturer of high-speed diesel generator sets (gen-sets) has invested [text removed for publication]. This activity yields significant commercial advantage in both performance and efficiency bringing benefits for the environment, through reduced emissions, and major customer operational savings.
Research conducted since July 2008 by the University of East London in collaboration with Control Techniques Dynamics (CTD), a leading manufacturer of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors (PMSMs), has led to the development of a software tool called the PMSM analyser. This tool has helped CTD to improve its motor design methodology by incorporating electromagnetic, thermal and cost models, together with genetic algorithms. In turn, the design optimisation allowed CTD to enhance motor performance and reduce manufacturing time by 30-40%, leading to an increase of 20% in company sales between 2008 and 2013. During the same period the company was able to cut materials usage by 15%.
Research carried out at the University of Southampton has enabled major players in the aerospace industry — among them Rolls-Royce, Airbus, and Boeing — to produce more fuel efficient, longer lasting engines and aircraft at reduced cost. The research has provided the aerospace industry with modelling tools and software enabling companies to explore complex new designs quickly whilst managing product risk in a competitive market. The research team has also developed new design processes for unmanned aircraft, which — as a result of strong media interest - improved public understanding of such new technologies through worldwide coverage. A spin-out company has achieved strong technological and economic impacts in its own right.
Research in the University of Cambridge Department of Engineering (DoEng), which made it possible for the first time to design a 3D compressor blade as a single component, underpinned the design of compressors in Rolls-Royce civil aero engines. Blades designed using the research results yielded fuel efficiency improvements of 0.8% when deployed in Rolls-Royce Trent engines. The efficiency improvements in engines in service are estimated to have delivered savings of 460k tonnes in CO2 emissions and USD 145 million in fuel costs during the assessment period. Rolls- Royce's outstanding order book for engines in which the technology made a significant contribution to efficiency is estimated to be worth GBP 27 billion at list prices as at 31 July 2013; orders received during the assessment period are estimated to be worth GBP 18 billion at list prices.
Model Predictive Control (MPC) is a controller design methodology involving on-line dynamic optimisation of a user-defined objective. The research of Prof. D.Q. Mayne FRS and his colleagues at Imperial College has resulted in the first MPC algorithms capable of dealing with both linear and nonlinear systems and hard constraints on controls and states, thus making MPC a viable technique for industrial applications. His research in linear and nonlinear MPC has been exploited by multinational companies such as Honeywell and ABB. Evidence of impact is found in: 1) ethylene production by Basell Polyolefins GmbH resulting in economic benefits in millions of dollars annually; 2) Sinopec's JinShan power plant efficiency, reducing fuel consumptions of 500 tons of coal and 1,700 tons of coke per annum; 3) automotive powertrain design creating new business for Honeywell (based on OnRAMP design suite); 4) ABB's cpmPlus Expert Optimizer tools used for cement manufacturing, affecting companies such as Untervaz (Switzerland), Lägerdorf (Germany) and Buzzi (Italy); 5) ABB's BoilerMaz system for optimising boiler start-up mechanism resulting in energy savings per start-up of around 15%.
This addresses improvements in the design of hydraulic transmission systems, for vehicular and renewable energy generation systems, by replacing the mechanical gearboxes to reduce their significant energy losses. This ERPE design of novel digitally controlled hydraulic transmission systems has culminated in the licensing, manufacture and production of high efficiency hydraulic gearboxes, now registered as the Digital Displacement® (DD®) patented technology.
This novel technology enabled the formation of the spin-out company Artemis Intelligent Power Ltd., with 30 staff in 2008, which was acquired by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., in 2010, enabling the growth to 50 employees today.
Research in the University of Cambridge Department of Engineering (DoEng) between 2003 and 2010 investigated the technical feasibility and efficiency benefits of an innovative design for the S-shaped ducts linking the two compressors in a modern civil aero engine. Rolls-Royce incorporated this technology in its latest generation of engines (Trent XWB); the benefits in terms of increased fuel efficiency which the new design of S-duct brings are a significant selling-point for what is marketed as "the world's most efficient engine". As at 31 July 2013 Rolls-Royce has an order book of more than 1400 such engines (worth, at list price, approximately GBP 20 billion), of which 832 orders were received within the assessment period.
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.