Dr. Edward McCarthy FHEA is Senior Lecturer in Composites Design and Testing at the University of Edinburgh and Lead of the FASTBLADE Fatigue Test Facility, Port of Rosyth, UK. He is University of Edinburgh Principal Investigator of Horizon 2020 project MAXBLADE, featuring a consortium of ten partners across the EU and UK led by tidal energy company, Orbital Marine Power. This project aims to consolidate the next generation of floating tidal stream energy generators, increasing power yield and reducing levelised cost of energy to levels more competitive with conventional energy sources. He is also Co-investigator in projects COTIDE and Morphing Blade, both of which are also focused on engineering research underpinning tidal energy development.

Previously he has led CAMREG Flexifund project Tideflex, studying the implementation of passively adaptive or morphing trailing edge sections on tidal blades for improved energy harvesting performance, and has also led the Oil, Gas and Innovation Centre (OGIC) project CompClamp looking at the use of composite material in novel deep sea clamping applications.

He was lead of EU project Powderblade focused on development of epoxy resin technology for deployment in offshore wind blades in partnership with Suzlon Energy and Eirecomposites Teo, Ireland. He was also Co-Investigator of Wave Energy Scotland project Rotohybrid in 2017-18 examining the deployment of rotomoulded thermoplastic structures in wave energy devices, and characterised novel elastomer-fabric materials for Elasto, a project examining the use of elastomeric diaphragm technologies for wave energy generation.

His research includes investigating strategies for impact-damage reduction in laminated composites (PhD graduate, Dr. Evanthia Pappa), development of submarine composite joint designs (PhD graduate, Dr. James Davidson), and properties of thick section composites (PhD candidate, Mr. James Quinn). He is also supervising a PhD project (PhD student, Mr. Michael O'Sullivan) in the use of fluid-structure interaction modeling to improve the design of marine structures subject to complex sea loading.

He is interested in all aspects of composite testing, with specific personal expertise in fibre fragmentation problems under uniaxial loading. Having a chemical engineering background, he is also involved in polymerisation and polymer characterisation: the synthesis of ionomer scaffolds by ring opening polymerisation for ultimate deployment in grafting of biological tissue, and reactive injection moulding of thermoplastics as a cost-effective alternative to resin transfer moulding CIMComp Synergy Project with University of Nottingham, 2022-23).

Prior to his present post, he was Project Leader of the Innovate UK-funded Concept Integration Project (‘Wings of the Future’) at the National Composite Certification and Evaluation Facility (NCCEF) at the University of Manchester. This project was focused on detection and benchmarking of barely visible impact damage in aerospace preimpregnated carbon fibre reinforced epoxy composites.

Between 2010 and 2013, he was Guest Researcher at the Polymer Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the United States, researching novel polymer nanocomposites and the micromechanics of continuous-fibre polymer composites at the fibre-matrix interface level.

In 2009, he worked on a polymer composite fire modelling project at University of Bolton, and developed extensive industrial experience in elastomer formulation and characterisation at Perlast Ltd, Blackburn, UK, (2007-2009) and in gas plant process design at Costain Ltd., Manchester, UK (1998-1999).

Notes

• McCarthy ED, Zammarano M, Fox DM, Nieuwendaal RC, Kim YS, Polymer 54: 90-101 (2013).
• McCarthy ED, Kim, JH, Heckert NA, Leigh SD, Gilman JW, Holmes GA, Composites Sci. Tech. 121: 73-81 (2015).
• McCarthy ED, Soutis C, Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing, 118: 281-292 (2019).
• McCarthy ED, Kandola BK, Edwards G, Myler P, Yuan J, Wang YC, 47: 2371-2384 (2013).
• McCarthy ED, Sealing Technology, 12: 7-10 (2008).