Research
For several decades, the school has produced internationally recognised, world-leading research in aerospace engineering in the areas of computational methods, high performance materials and more recently in multidisciplinary nanotechnology. The collaborative links to aerospace companies including BAE Systems, Airbus and Rolls Royce are strong and well established. The school has a track record of attracting numerous and large research grants. In the latest RAE (results published in December 2008) the research undertaken in the school was rated 4* which corresponds to the highest mark attainable.
Research in the School of Engineering is an integrated process as may be seen by the world class Bloodhound project. Aerospace modelling involves many physical phenomena and thus is highly amenable to an integrated approach. Thus research in aerospace engineering interfaces with the following three areas within the School of Engineering:
- Computational Methods in the C2EC Research Centre
- Material Research Centre
- Multidisciplinary Nanotechnology
Particular areas of interest for Aerospace Engineering include:
- Aerospace Materials, including Power and Aerospace Materials and Environment and Sustainable Materials.
- Computational Fluid Dynamics, including Fluid Structure Interaction
- Mesh Generation
- Morphing Aircraft
- Multi-Physics Modelling
- Computational Electromagnetics, including Higher-Order Electromagnetics
- Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimal Design
- Structural Dynamics and Systems
Research Areas in Computational Engineering
Current relevant aerospace research includes a continuously expanding number of topics in the area of computational and applied mechanics:
- Applied Mechanics
- Computational Electromagnetic
- Computational Fluid Dynamics
- High-Performance Computing
- Error Estimation
- Intelligent and Adaptive Computing
- Mesh Generation
- Morphing Aircraft
- Multi-Physics Modelling
- Partical-Based Meshless Methods
- Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimal Design
- Structural Dynamics and Systems
- Virtual Reality and Visualisation of Computational Data
- Simulation of Multi-Fracturing Solids and Particulate Media
Research Areas of the Materials Research Centre
Work in Materials Research is carried out by a number of internationally-recognised research groups in the following themes:
- Power and Aerospace Materials
- Environment and Sustainable Materials
Full details can be found here.
Research in Nanotechnology
- Charge Writing and Nano Patterning
- Device Imaging
- Gas Sensing with Metal Oxide Semiconductors
- High Resolution Imaging
- Nano-scale Electronic Passivation of Devices
- Nanoscale Modelling
- Nano Particles on Surfaces
Full details can be found here.
