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FireComp: Modelling the thermo-mechanical behaviour of high pressure vessel in composite materials when exposed to fire conditions |
Dr Stephen Welch
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Infrastructure and Environment |
Hydrogen is expected to be highly valuable energy carrier for the 21st century as it should participate in answering main societal and economical concerns. To exploit its benefits at large scale, further research and technological developments are required. In particular, the storage of hydrogen must be secured. Even if burst in service of pressure vessels in composite material is very unlikely, when exposed to a fire, they present safety challenges imposing to correctly size their means of protection.
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Intelligent Egress: Real time modelling based upon sensor data to steer evacuation in case of fire |
Dr Stephen Welch
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Infrastructure and Environment |
Intelligent egress is a novel approach to enhancing evacuations from fire emergencies. It combines sensor-linked simulations and route-planning tools to provide real-time information to occupants on efficient egress. The specific issues associated with disabilities and mobility impairment are addressed. Mechanisms to provide “way finding” information to relevant end users are being studied. Detailed guidance and recommendations on use of such systems will be developed.
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A systematic study of physical layer network coding: From Information-Theoretic Understanding to Practical DSP Algorithm Design |
Dr Tharmalingam Ratnarajah
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Digital Communications |
High spectral efficiency is the holy grail of wireless networks due to the well-known scarcity of radio spectrum. While up to recently there seemed to be no way out of the apparent end of the road in spectral efficiency growth, the emerging approach of Network Coding has cast new light in the spectral efficiency prospects of wireless networks [1]. Initial results have demonstrated that the use of network coding increases the spectral efficiency up to 50% [2, 3]. Such a significant performance gain is crucial for many important bandwidth-hungry applications such as broadband cellular systems, wireless sensor networks, underwater communication scenarios, etc.
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HARP: High capacity network Architecture with Remote radio heads & Parasitic antenna arrays |
Dr Tharmalingam Ratnarajah
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Digital Communications |
To bring distributed multi-antenna wireless access to reality by combining two powerful emerging technologies:
radio remote heads (RRHs), which allow for widely geographically distributed access via radio-over-fibre connections to a central base station; and
electronically steerable passive array radiators – ESPARs, which provide multi-antenna-like functionality with a single active RF chain only
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TeraWatt: Large scale interactive coupled 3D modelling for wave and tidal energy resource and environmental impact (Remit 1 MASTS Consortium Proposal) |
Dr Vengatesan Venugopal
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Energy Systems |
Scotland has substantial wave and tidal energy resources and is at the forefront of the development of marine renewable technologies and ocean energy exploitation. The next phase will see these wave and tidal devices deployed in arrays, with many sites being developed. Although developers have entered into agreements with The Crown Estate for seabed leases, all projects remain subject to licensing requirements under the Marine Scotland Act (2010).
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Development of UV and visible light active photocatalysts |
Dr Xianfeng Fan
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Materials and Processes |
To address the need for effective vis response photocatalysts, we have synthesised WO3 and TiO2 nanowires to provide a fast transport channel for the photo-generated electrons which can retard the charge recombination. We are working on improving the visible activity of the catalysts through modifying the nanocomposites using metal (Ag, W, V, Fe, Ni) and non-metal (C, N, B, S) elements, and through the control over the microstructure or even over the crystal phase.
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Measurement of pore wettability |
Dr Xianfeng Fan
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Materials and Processes |
Pore wetting is a principal control of the multiphase flows through porous media. However, the contact angle measurement on other than flat surfaces still remains a challenge. In order to indicate the wetting in a small pore, we developed a new pore contact angle measurement technique to directly measure the contact angles of fluids and gas/liquid/supercritical CO2 in micron-sized pores under ambient and reservoir conditions in this study, as well as the effect of chemical functional groups on pore contact angle.
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Enhanced oil/gas recovery and CO2 storage |
Dr Xianfeng Fan
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Materials and Processes |
Enhanced oil/gas recovery and CO2 storage are a displacement process at pore scale, in which oil and gas are displaced by water or CO2 in reservoir at pore scale, or water is displaced by CO2 in aquifers at pore scale. This displacement is controlled by pore structure, pore wettability, pore surface chemistry, fluid viscosity and interfacial interaction between pore fluids and pore surfaces. The displacement controls the pore connectivity, therefore oil/gas recovery and CO2 storage capacity. We investigate the displacement and the effect of various factors on the displacement at pore scale and core scale.
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Particulate Materials Processing |
Dr Xianfeng Fan
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Materials and Processes |
Bubbling fluidization has been widely applied in process industries, such as power generation from coal, renewable energy production, gasification and pyrolysis. In this study, we attempted to predict solid flow patterns, solid and gas mixing, bubble behaviour in a bubbling fluidized bed based on operational conditions and bed design.
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DTOcean: Optimal Design Tools for Ocean Energy Arrays |
Mr Henry Jeffrey
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Energy Systems |
DTOcean is a European collaborative project funded by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Development, more specifically under the call ENERGY 2013-1.
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