Breakthrough 2013 (PDF) - Swansea University

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College of Engineering ]
Low Carbon Research Institute Marine
Consortium (LCRI Marine)
The Low Carbon Research Institute (LCRI), which was established in
2008 with an initial investment of £5.17 million by the Higher
Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW), and European
structural funding of £19.2 million in 2009, unites the diverse range of
low carbon energy research across the universities of Cardiff,
Swansea, Glamorgan, Glyndwr, Bangor, and Aberystwyth.
This initial government funding has built low carbon research capacity
in Wales with a current programme of £82.1 million, including
£20.4 million from UK research councils, another £20.2 million from
EU framework and other sources, with a further £15.1 million support
from industry and the partner universities.
Working with industry and government, the LCRI’s research agenda
includes, low to zero carbon energy supply systems, reduced energy
demand, knowledge and skills transfer, and dissemination and
industry partnerships.
The Low Carbon Research Institute Marine Consortium (LCRI Marine)
is one of the multidisciplinary Low Carbon Research Institute’s (LCRI)
project areas.
LCRI Marine, led by Principal Investigator Dr Ian Masters at
Swansea’s College of Engineering, brings together the leading
academic marine institutions in Wales, including the universities of
Swansea, Cardiff, Bangor, and Aberystwyth, Swansea Metropolitan
University of Wales Trinity St David, and Pembrokeshire College, and
aims to enable and support a sustainable marine energy sector.
LCRI Marine undertakes independent and world-class research into
the generation of renewable electrical energy from waves, tides and
currents in oceans, estuaries and rivers.
Specialist tools are developed to optimise the performance of
technologies which recover energy from waves, tidal streams and
tidal ranges around the Welsh coast.
The group is especially focused on the effects these technologies and
devices have on environments such as seabed communities, sediment
transport and marine wildlife.
Marine energy is a rapidly growing industry and LCRI Marine is
working to develop supply chains to maximise the economic benefits
to Wales of generating electricity from the sea.
Swansea leads LCRI Marine’s work on marine technologies, in close
collaboration with Cardiff and Bangor. The teams are researching
both the engineering and environmental aspects of deployment sites
on every coast of Wales.
LCRI Marine works in Pembrokeshire with Tidal Energy Limited on the
first grid connected tidal stream turbine in Wales, and in Anglesey
with Marine Current Turbines (a Siemens subsidiary) on one of the
world’s first tidal turbine arrays.
www.lcrimarine.org.uk/
Materials Research Centre (MRC)
Swansea is a ground-breaking centre for
materials teaching and research, where
internationally significant research is funded
by organisations from Rolls-Royce and Airbus
through to Tata Steel and the European
Space Agency.
The Materials Research Centre (MRC), led
by Professor Dave Worsley, has pioneered
postgraduate degrees tailored to the needs
of industry, producing high quality research.
A successful approach is reflected by a
research grant portfolio in excess of
£40 million and Materials Engineering
ranking joint 8th in the UK in the 2008
Research Assessment Exercise.
The Centre incorporates internationally
recognised research areas including
structural materials, corrosion and functional
coatings, grain boundary engineering,
environment and sustainable materials, and
steel technology.
Its key research areas include design against
failure by creep, fatigue and environmental
damage; structural metals and ceramics for
gas turbine applications; grain boundary
engineering; recycling of polymers and
composites; corrosion mechanisms in new
generation magnesium alloys; development
of novel strip steel grades (IF, HSLA, Dual
Phase, TRIP); and functional coatings for
energy generation, storage and release.
The Engineering and Physical Sciences
Research Council (EPSRC) Strategic
Partnership in Structural Materials for Gas
Turbines, in collaboration with Rolls-Royce, is
designed to extend the capability of existing
high temperature metallic systems and
develop novel alloys for potential use within
a 20-year horizon – the so-called “Vision
20” materials.
In partnership with Birmingham and
Cambridge Universities, this £50 million
scheme supports postdoctoral level research
and a Doctoral Training Centre with a rolling
cohort of approximately 30 EngD and PhD
students at Swansea University.
Key supply chain industries are also
engaged including TIMET, a European
producer of commercial titanium products,
and TWI (Wales), a centre of excellence
for the non-destructive inspection of
aerospace materials.
Swansea University has also been selected
as one of five UK universities to host a new
EPSRC-funded Industrial Doctorate Centre in
Manufacturing Engineering.
MATTER (Manufacturing Advances through
Training Engineering Researchers) is an
exciting new venture that will support
26 EngD students over the next four years.
The venture has been developed to provide
doctoral level research in advanced
manufacturing across aerospace, automotive
and packaging; themes which are critical
manufacturing areas for the UK economy.
www.swansea.ac.uk/engineering/
research/centres-and-projects/materialsresearch-centre/
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