Research
The Department benefits from the concentration of aerospace industry in the south-west of England and a key feature of the Department's research is its close links with the industry - including Airbus, Rolls-Royce, AgustaWestland, BAE Systems and others further afield. The Department has also seen burgeoning links with the renewable energy industry.Some of these research links have led to the establishment of formal technology partnerships; the Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre in Composites, the AgustaWestland Helicopters University Technology Centre in Vibration, and a composites technology partnership with Vestas Wind Systems. The result of this close relationship with industry, associated with substantial research funding from other UK and EU sources, is that the Department's research is industrially relevant and at the leading edge of the aerospace sector as reflected by the high proportion of research found to be internationally excellent and world-leading in the 2008 UK Government Research Assessment Exercise.
Research is conducted through Faculty wide Research Groups that typically involve academic staff from a number of Departments. Academic staff from Aerospace Engineering vigorously pursue their research interests primarily via three of these groups, namely:
- Advanced Composites Centre for Innovation and Science (ACCIS)
- Fluid Dynamics and Aerodynamics
- Dynamics and Control
We also have good collaborative links with organisations such as EADS Innovation Works, DSTL and BAE Systems. We are also a founding members of the UK Applied Aerodynamics Consortium, and partners in the Centre for Fluid Mechanics Simulation (CFMS). International interest from non-academic centres includes, NASA Langley, Los Alamos National Laboratories, and the US Air Force.
Particular research highlights include our ongoing work on morphing structures, self-healing materials, auxetics, control of autonomous flying unmanned vehicles, and numerical methods for improving approaches in computational fluid dynamics.
An indication of our research esteem is the recent selection by UK Government for the University of Bristol to lead the establishment of the UK National Composites Centre (NCC). The NCC is a £25 million investment supported by the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the South West RDA (Regional Development Agency). The Centre is a key element of the Government's new Composites Strategy, which will bring together dynamic companies and enterprising academics to develop new technologies for the design and rapid manufacture of high-quality composite products. The combination of academic and business strengths will speed progress from laboratory to design to factory and into products.
To facilitate the internationally renowned research the Department has first rate experimental facilities including use of the Bristol Laboratory for Advanced Dynamics Engineering (BLADE) which was opened by HM The Queen in 2005. Based on visionary plans formulated in 1999, BLADE continues to provide unique capabilities for studying the dynamics of structures and machines across the entire engineering spectrum.
