Industry partnership to boost engine research

Experts at the University’s supercomputing centre, EPCC, are leading a project with Rolls-Royce to develop a detailed simulation of a gas-turbine engine in operation.

The research is hoped to lead to the virtual certification of gas turbine engines.

The team will seek to develop the next generation of engineering simulation and modelling techniques during their project.

Their challenge combines fundamental engineering and computational science research and will tackle a level of detail never before attempted in such a simulation.

The project, to be carried out over five years, is led by Edinburgh and also involves the Universities of Bristol, Cambridge, Oxford and Warwick. In addition to Rolls-Royce, CFMS and Zenotech are two further industry partners. The project is one of seven across the UK to benefit from a programme that aims to build links between the UK’s research base and industry partners.

Other partners taking part in EPSRC’s Prosperity Partnerships programme include AkzoNobel, AstraZeneca and Google.

The £42 million scheme is funded by the EPSRC, industry partners and universities.

Professor Philip Nelson, EPSRC’s Executive Chair said: “Our first round of Prosperity Partnerships are proving a great success. They are bringing universities and industry together and applying the creative energies of both to engineering and scientific challenges. We are confident that these projects will deliver real benefits to all their partners and help the UK research, discover and innovate.”