The hydrodynamic performance of marine devices is crucial from the energy efficiency point of view. A well-designed drag reducing technique for ship hulls would decrease the unsustainable fossil fuel consumption and pollution, which accounts for 3% of the global carbon dioxide emission. The drag experienced by, for instance, a tidal turbine blade, also limits the extractable power from the tidal stream and, therefore, a drag reduction would increase the capacity factor of tidal turbines and decrease the cost of renewable energy. Our research aims to reduce the experienced drag with compliant coatings.

Powderblade was a collaboration of The University of Edinburgh, Eirecomposites Teo, Suzlon Energy and WestBIC. It was a research and development project that used novel engineering methods to modernise the way large wind turbine blades are manufactured and installed.

The aim is to develop a new understanding of the micromechanics of railway trackbed subjected to dynamic loads induced by high speed trains. This should lead to safer design of high-speed railway systems which require less maintenance and, therefore, are more sustainable.

For granular materials with low thermal conductivity heat transfer occurs through interstitial gases as well as through physical contacts.  Existing particle based models are ill suited to dense systems so a multi-scale approach has been used to correlate the local packing structure to the gas contribution to conductive heat transfer in dense granular systems.