Image generated by Google Gemini

The Energy theme covers:

Nuclear fusion energy technology

• Stress analysis and structural integrity assessment using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) of
  in vessel components, notably the DEMO divertor, reactor central solenoid and mechanical
  plant to be used for maintenance and reactor upgrading purposes.
• Assessment of the suitability of the Nuclear code RCC-MRx (Design and Construction
  Rules for mechanical components of nuclear installations : high-temperature, research and
  fusion reactors) to be used for monotonic and cyclic loading of fusion reactor components.
  The current analysis trend both in academia and industry is to use the elastic approach to
  mimic elastic plastic material behaviour. The elastic approach has many benefits but risks
  being over conservative and complicated to implement at times. In this work elastic and
  inelastic analyses are compared as applied to fusion reactors, with the aim to improve
  stress analysis and design approaches.

Wind Energy, through research on the following topics:

• Wind Turbine Aerodynamics where high fidelity computational models together with wind tunnel measurements are used to obtain a better insight to the unsteady local blade and wake flow phenomena experienced by yawed wind turbines and floating wind turbines subjected to significant wave induced platform motions.
• Wind measurement and modelling, with work carried out in close collaboration with the Institute for Sustainable Energy focussed mainly on wind resource assessment using measurements (cup-type anemometry and Lidar) and CFD.
• Fluid power transmission in offshore wind turbines, based on use of cold sea water from beneath thermocline formations which may be used for enhancing the performance of large-scale cooling processes.
• Micro-wind turbine design and performance testing.

Air conditioning, through research on the following topics: 

• the use of inverter technology and variable refrigerant flow air conditioning, performed through a series of experimental campaigns.
• experimental studies on the effects of voltage on the consumption of a domestic refrigerator
• experimental investigations on using a water cistern for dissipation of air conditioning load.  
• analytical and experimental investigations using variable air flow for an industrial cooling tower, aimed at reducing electrical consumption by the fans.