Rolls-Royce and Cambridge University extend engine research link

Citation

(2002), "Rolls-Royce and Cambridge University extend engine research link", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 74 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2002.12774aaf.003

Rolls-Royce and Cambridge University extend engine research link

Keywords: Rolls-Royce, Research

Rolls-Royce and the University of Cambridge have recently announced the inauguration of a major new gas turbine research centre, based in Cambridge.

In a unique new partnership with the University, Rolls-Royce is making a commitment to support research leaders through a rolling five-year agreement worth around £1.5 million annually. This will enable the University to extend the areas of research undertaken to include combustion technologies and whole-engine issues.

The University Gas Turbine Partnership (UGTP) at Cambridge extends a relationship under which Rolls-Royce has placed a succession of key technology acquisition programmes with the University for nearly 30 years. It also marks the 10th anniversary of the establishment of a Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre (UTC) at Cambridge, one of 19 such centres around the country.

In 1989, the company funded a Professorship of Aerothermal Technology and two years later this relationship was formalised by creating a Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre at Cambridge's Whittle Laboratory. This centre has focused on research in the areas of gas turbine compressors and turbines.

The Whittle Laboratory was opened in a green-field site in 1972 and, with the continued support of Rolls-Royce, has become one of the world's premier turbomachinery research centres. The new UGTP will include the Whittle Laboratory, but will be broader in scope, with the additional activities undertaken in other parts of the Engineering department.

The Director of the UGTP will be Professor Ann Dowling FREng, Professor of Mechanical Engineering in the Department of Engineering at Cambridge University. The UGTP activities will be co-ordinated for Rolls-Royce by Dr David Clarke, Head of Technology Strategy and Research.

Funding of the Cambridge University UTGP will strengthen the university's academic base as it includes two professorships, two lectureships and a range of support staff to run the UGTP's day-to-day activities. It will also help to strengthen Rolls- Royce's position as a world leading supplier of power systems for aerospace, marine and energy markets.

Rolls-Royce will also promote individual projects within the UGTP, some of which will be jointly funded by the EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council), by the Department of Trade and Industry under the Government's CARAD initiative and by the European Commission.

Cambridge University and Rolls-Royce both recognise the vital importance of designing research programmes that have an outcome in 'the real world'. Value for money and specific engineering goals are being targeted, and successful results will ultimately see new technologies used in service. This real-life challenge will attract the best academic talent into engineering disciplines, ensuring a supply of high-quality engineers entering industry for the future.

Phil Ruffles, Director - Engineering and Technology for Rolls-Royce, said: "The association between Rolls-Royce and Cambridge can be traced back to the early 1940s when Whittle was pioneering the gas turbine. Since then this relationship has grown, leading to the formation of the Whittle Laboratory in 1972, and the launch of our University Technology Centre (UTC) in 1991, with its main focus being on turbomachinery.

"In this time the partnership has been a model of how industry and academia can work together to discover new technologies and push the boundaries of engineering. Examples are the high-lift low-pressure turbine blade, compressor 3D aerodynamics and bleed slots that are all being incorporated into the Trent 500 engine, which powers the A340-5001600 aircraft.

"The formation of the UGTP will further strengthen the link between Rolls-Royce and Cambridge by broadening the activity to include combustion, advanced gas turbine cycles and aerodynamics throughout the propulsion system. It will build on capabilities that exist at Cambridge and the investment that Rolls-Royce has already made. Through enabling, sustaining and developing world- class research centres such as Cambridge, Rolls-Royce will be able to continue pioneering research for the future - as Whittle did with the gas turbine in the 1940s."

Professor Ann Dowling, Director of the UGTP, said: "This partnership brings together the University of Cambridge and Rolls-Royce, both committed to technological excellence. It builds on the trust and mutual understanding developed through decades of collaboration.

"At the heart of the partnership is a group of academics, world leaders in their own fields, who believe that research is most exciting and challenging when it addresses issues of relevance to industry. Such projects attract excellent students - it is thrilling for students to see their research results influencing the next generation of aircraft engines.

"Many industries fund individual research projects. What is special about this relationship with Rolls-Royce is that they are making a commitment to support the research leaders professors and lecturers - and these additional staff posts enable us to expand the scope of our activities. Moreover, through the rolling five-year agreement, we can offer job security to researchers and technical staff.

"Whittle developed his jet engine while a student in our Department. Equally inventive minds are needed to work on today's research challenges for the next generation of gas turbines."

Cambridge University has had a long a close association with Roll-Royce and the jet engine. Charles Stewart Rolls is believed to be the first undergraduate to go up to Cambridge in a motor-propelled vehicle. He used the university engineering laboratories to work on his vehicles and in June 1898 graduated with a degree in Mechanism and Applied Science - as engineering at Cambridge was then called.

The University's association with the jet engine began with Sir Frank Whittle in the 1930s. Sir Frank, known as the inventor of the jet engine, came to Cambridge in 1934 while he was in the RAF.

He gained a BA with first class honours in the Mechanical Sciences Tripos, Department of Engineering, after only two years of study. He was supervised by the Professor of Aeronautical Engineering, Sir Melvill Jones. It was during the time that he was at Cambridge that Whittle was encouraged by his colleagues to take the idea of his jet engine further, with the results that we now all take for granted.

In 1989, Rolls-Royce's enduring association with the University began to take off, when it funded a new Professorship of Aerothermal Technology, a chair to which Professor Nick Cumpsty was first elected.

Two years later, Rolls-Royce designated the University's Whittle Laboratory a University Technology Centre in turbomachinery aerodynamics.

The Whittle Laboratory's work is at the forefront of turbomachinery aerodynamics. Numerical methods for calculating turbomachinery flows that have been developed in the Laboratory are used by industry world-wide. A " particular strength of the Whittle Laboratory is the close integration of computational and experimental work. Facilities include several large-scale low- speed wind tunnels, turbines and compressors and a large high-speed wind tunnel.

Partnerships with companies such as Rolls- Royce mean that the results of its research programmes can often be applied to real machines remarkably quickly.

Collaborations between Rolls-Royce and the Engineering Department at Cambridge extend beyond the field of turbomachinery aerodynamics, and encompass combustion, computational fluid dynamics, heat transfer and noise. The University Gas Turbine Partnership recognises this wider field of activity, and provides the foundation for further expansion.

Rolls-Royce also funds a highly successful Nickel-based materials University Technology Centre, in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge. This was founded in 1994, and is one of 19 Rolls-Royce UTCs in the United Kingdom.

Details available from: Rolls-Royce plc, Tel+44 (0)1332 248389; Fax: +44 (0)1332 248972; University of Cambridge, Tel: +44 (0)1223 766241; Fax: +44 (0)1223 330262.