- Current language: en
South West England
Future Fast Aeroelastic Simulation Technologies (FFAST)
Bristol
Research and innovation
The upstream FFAST project addresses the topic Design Systems and Tools (AAT.2008.4.1.1) by developing, implementing and assessing a range of numerical simulation technologies to accelerate future aircraft design. Critical load identification methods and reduced order modelling techniques developed will potentially provide a step change in the efficiency and accuracy of the dynamic aeroelastic “loads process” . Identifying the flight conditions that lead to the maximum loads on aircraft structures and introducing higher fidelity methods at these conditions will reduce the cost and turn around time of the loads process of conventional aircraft. This will lead to significant improvements to product development and manufacture, supporting the ACARE 2020 targets. In addition, innovative designs required for green aircraft can be evaluated more rapidly and at lower risk. Reduced order modelling techniques offer the potential for further step changes in the efficiency of the aeroelastic loads process. These offer the accuracy of high fidelity methods at a cost close to that of the current low fidelity methods. The target for the FFAST project is to demonstrate a speed up of 2 to 3 orders of magnitude over high fidelity methods. To meet this target research will be carried out in work packages to: improve identification of critical loads; develop reduced order modelling strategies for unsteady aerodynamic and aeroelastic simulation. A work package dedicated to validation and evaluation on a set of industrially relevant test cases will judge the success of the technologies developed and give industry confidence to make the necessary pull-through investment. Strong industrial support of FFAST allows direct exploitation of the results via focused future investment, the solution data base and early release software. The dissemination of FFAST to a wider audience is vital and will be achieved via a website, targeted lectures and workshops, conferences and journal publications.
http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/93282_en.html
VUELCO
Volcanic unrest in Europe and Latin America: Phenomenology, eruption precursors, hazard forecast, and risk mitigation
Bristol
Climate and environment
Our knowledge of the causative links between subsurface processes, resulting unrest signals and imminent eruption is, today, wholly inadequate to deal effectively with crises of volcanic unrest. The VUELCO project consortium has come together for a multi-disciplinary attack on the origin, nature and significance of volcanic unrest from the scientific contributions generated by collaboration of ten partners in Europe and Latin America. Dissecting the science of monitoring data from unrest periods at six type volcanoes in Italy, Spain, the West Indies, Mexico and Ecuador the consortium will create global strategies for 1) enhanced monitoring capacity and value, 2) mechanistic data interpretation and 3) identification of reliable eruption precursors; all from the geophysical, geochemical and geodetic fingerprints of unrest episodes. Experiments will establish a mechanistic understanding of subsurface processes capable of inducing unrest and aid in identifying key volcano monitoring parameters indicative of the nature of unrest processes. Numerical models will help establish a link between the processes and volcano monitoring data to inform on the causes of unrest and its short-term evolution. Using uncertainty assessment and new short-term probabilistic hazard forecasting tools the scientific knowledge base will provide the crucial parameters for a comprehensive and best-practice approach to 1) risk mitigation, 2) communication, 3) decision-making and 4) crisis management during unrest periods. The VUELCO project consortium efforts will generate guidance in the definition and implementation of strategic options for effective risk mitigation, management and governance during unrest episodes. Such a mechanistic platform of understanding, impacting on the synergy of scientists, policy-makers, civil protection authorities, decision-makers, and the public, will place volcanic unrest management on a wholly new basis, with European expertise at its peak.
http://cordis.europa.eu/projects/rcn/100132_en.html
UTOUCH
Universal mid-air haptic feedback
Bristol
Research and innovation
Ultrahaptics is the first and only company in the world to create a novel haptic feedback system that allows users to feel sensations in their bare hands while interacting in mid-air with a touchless sensing system. We use an array of ultrasonic speakers to create mid-air feeling without touching. Invisible forces are projected into the air and felt on human skin up to 1 metre away from the device. The activities planned in our project will allow us to create three routes to market – the bespoke solutions, the development kits (Dev Kit) and business-to-business (B2B) products. Within this project we will expand and actively pursue the Dev Kit and B2B route, where we will make development platforms and completed products available to companies that want to integrate Ultrahaptics in their applications. In the Dev Kit route, we will create embedded Ultrahaptic systems based on standard microprocessors that are offered with development boards (WP4) and software tools (WP3). This will allow a large range of small and medium enterprise companies to write their own applications without needing to go through our evaluation programme. In the B2B route, we will create simple ubiquitous modules such as touchless buttons with tactile feedback. To enable us to target a wide range of markets, we will pursue the Dev Kit and B2B route for 3 sizes of firmware - U5 which is closest to what we already have in-house in terms of processing speed and number of transducers required, U7 which maximises performance and features and U3 which is a low-cost solution. The most relevant market segments for initial introduction of the project solutions are Automotive (U5), computing and gaming (U7) and home appliances (U3).
http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/198538_en.html
CleanTools
Crevice-free, high reliability bi-metallic surgical instruments manufactured from shape memory alloys
Cirencester
Health
Flexible medical instruments such as bone reamers are currently constructed from multiple parts in dissimilar materials, which have very different properties. The current method of linking these parts together is by mechanical coupling. Effective decontamination of such instruments is challenging but is critical to avoid cross infection between patients. The geometry of the instrument assembly (particularly bone reamers and similar tools used in joint implants) have crevices at the joints which are difficult and expensive to clean and fully sterilise. Welded instruments would eliminate this problem.
Approximately 7000 cases of MRSA infections were reported in UK hospitals during 2007 and similar issues are prevalent across Europe. Such infections are of particular concern in post-surgery patients. The CleanTools project aims to develop technology which will reduce this issue by making surgical instruments easier to clean and disinfect. The crevice between stainless steel cutting heads and Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) flexible shafts currently makes decontamination challenging, time consuming and chemically intensive. Additionally there have been instances of cutting heads becoming detached from the flexible drive shaft during use, causing undue implications in theatre and potential long term impacts on patient quality of life.
The desirable materials for these tools, such as SMAs and stainless steels, are challenging to weld and their properties are severely degraded when they are melted in conventional welding. CleanTools will provide a method for the manufacture of surgical instruments containing SMA materials though the use of rotary friction welding (RFW). RFW is a low heat input solid phase welding technology that will preserve the properties of the materials in question. CleanTools will improve the function of flexible surgical instruments, reduce the required cleaning and disinfection effort, improve reliability and reduce the cost of manufacture within Europe.
http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/102178_en.html
SPACECAST
Protecting space assets from high energy particles by developing European dynamic modelling and forecasting capabilities
Swindon
Research and innovation
Solar activity can trigger sporadic bursts of energetic particles and increase the number of high energy (MeV) particles trapped inside the Earth’s radiation belts. These high energy particles cause damage to satellites and are a hazard for manned spaceflight and aviation. They are difficult to predict due to uncertainties over the basic physical processes, and the need to access reliable data in real time. European space policy is committed to the Galileo radionavigation system consisting of 30 satellites, the use of space assets to protect the security of its citizens (GMES), and a strong and competitive space industry. It is therefore imperative that Europe develops the means to protect these space assets from all forms of space weather hazards, and especially now as solar activity will increase to a maximum over the next few years and will increase the hazard risk. This proposal will draw together European and international partners to increase knowledge, reduce uncertainty, and to develop a forecasting capability. We will undertake targeted studies of particle source, transport, acceleration and loss processes in the Earth’s radiation belts to improve understanding of how they respond to solar activity. We will transform research models into space weather models to forecast the radiation belts in near real time, and provide alerts for periods of high risk to stakeholders. We will test models of how solar energetic particles are accelerated by shocks in the solar wind, and are transported through the interplanetary medium, in order to improve engineering tools for predicting the intensity and fluence of solar energetic particle events. We will develop a stakeholder community for valuable feedback and deliver the results in a form accessible to the public. The project will deliver a space weather forecasting capability that will continue beyond the lifetime of the project and which will lay the foundation for an operational system.
