Chartered engineer wins £53,000 award

Citation

(2001), "Chartered engineer wins £53,000 award", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 73 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2001.12773cab.037

Chartered engineer wins £53,000 award

Chartered engineer wins £53,000 award

Keywords: Bevan Engineering, NESTA, Awards, Gas turbines

A new type of compressor air bleed valve for gas turbine applications is being developed by Neil Bevan at Bevan Engineering Ltd, UK. It has many advantages over conventional bleed valves used in the aerospace industry and, if successful, will bring major benefits in engine performance, reliability and maintenance.

Neil Bevan is a chartered engineer with 15 years' experience in the automotive and aerospace industries. He spent most of his working life at the Lucas Industries Advanced Engineering Centre, where he was responsible for the introduction and development of new technology relating to fluid mechanics and heat transfer. He set up his own small company, Bevan Engineering Ltd, two years ago in Water Orton in Warwickshire. His firm supports companies to produce new products by taking products to prototype stage, but the new valve is his own invention.

Traditional gas turbine bleed valves are unreliable as they suffer from soot ingress and bearing failures. They are also pneumatically operated, which makes them slow, and they consume large amounts of high-pressure air which reduces fuel economy. Bevan is working on an electrically-actuated, fast-acting, bi-stable compressor bleed valve which eliminates many of the difficulties inherent in conventional valves.

His project is part of a general trend towards the "more electric engine" and brings several technical benefits. Electric actuation of the valve means weight reduction, better diagnostic ability for faults, should they occur, and more flexibility to switch from one valve to the next when a fault occurs in flight. The rotary vane concept allows the bearings to be hidden from contaminated gas and therefore allows for a more reliable valve head.

The UK's National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) has given Bevan Engineering Ltd an Invention and Innovation award of £53,000 over one year to build and test a prototype, pay for legal costs in filing a patent application and product licensing. Without this support, we are told, Bevan would have been unable to finance the development work himself, and approaching other funding sources would have slowed down the project at a critical stage.

If the new rotary valve is successful, it could lead to more efficient air transport systems by reducing operating costs for carriers. It will allow greater loads to be carried, whether freight or passengers, for the same expenditure of fuel. Air transport is an expanding business and more efficient aircraft will lessen their impact on the environment.