Green Aviation booklet 2012 (1).pdf

solutions for the future

Green Aviation

2 Green Aviation solutions for the future

The Department of Aeronautics has existed at Imperial College London for over 100 years. In 1909 the College introduced its first lecture courses in Aeronautics, and in 1916 the first full course in Aerodynamics was established. Courses at this time were cutting edge for the era: The Dynamics of an Aeroplane, Wind Pressure, and Light Petrol Motors for Aerial Work were the titles of just some of the lectures which were run in 1909–10, the same year that Blériot made the first cross-channel flight. The importance of aeronautical research at that time was underlined by the donation of today’s equivalent of over £1 million by financier Sir Basil Zaharoff in 1917 towards the establishment of a Chair in Aerodynamics.

In 1919 Sir Richard Glazebrook, lifelong Professor of Physics at Cambridge University, was appointed as Head of Department and Zaharoff Professor of Aviation, making him the first Professor of Aeronautics at the College. Aeronautics continued to be a key area of research in the post-WWI period, with the Air Ministry – as it was then titled – providing £8,500 per annum (equivalent of over £180,000 today) to the College in 1920 towards the running of the Department. In the same year Imperial was invited to be a founding member of the Aeronautical Research Committee.

Imperial first introduced the BSc Degree in Aeronautical Engineering in 1947, just as the Cold War was beginning across Europe and the Americas. The MEng degree course was introduced as an option in 1984, leading eventually to the thriving department we are today with our undergraduates possessing the highest entry grades in the UK.

In the most recent Research Assessment Exercise, we were ranked as the UK’s leading aeronautical engineering department. Excellence in the fundamentals of fluids, structures and control underpins our research and we maintain excellent collaborative links with industry. The Department of Aeronautics is extensively involved in the research and development of Green Aviation technologies for future aircraft.

M H Ferri AliabadiHead, Department of Aeronautics Zaharoff Professor of Aviation

The history of Aeronautics at Imperial College London

Imperial College London is particularly well placed to play a major role in the development of technologies that will deliver greener air travel for future generations. The current aviation research portfolio draws on expertise within our engineering and science departments (Aeronautics, Chemical, Civil, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, Chemistry, Materials, Mathematics and Physics) and in our specialist cross-disciplinary centres (Centre for Transport Studies, Composites Centre, Centre for Environmental Policy, Grantham Institute for Climate Change, Energy Futures Lab and Porter Institute for plant-based liquid fuels). We are extensively engaged in a broad range of aspects of the green aviation challenge including:

Green aviation research

Flow control

Multi-scale modelling

Recycling

Control systems

Advanced materials

Morphing and smart technologies

Noise control and modelling

Advanced aerodynamics modelling

Innovative aircraft configuration design

Fluid dynamicsDepArtment of mAthemAtICS

Climate modelling GrAnthAm InStItute

Eco engines DepArtment of meChAnICAL enGIneerInG

Emerging materials DepArtmentS of ChemICAL enGIneerInG AnD mAterIALS

Bio-fuels porter InStItute

Nano materials DepArtment of ChemIStry

Fuel cells enerGy futureS LAb

ControlDepArtment of eLeCtrICAL enGIneerInG

Air transport operationsCentre for trAnSport StuDIeS

Environmental studies Centre for envIronmentAL poLICyGreen aviation

research at Imperial DepArtment of

AeronAutICS

• innovative drag reduction

• high performance and multifunctional materials for lighter airframes

• improved air traffic management strategies

• chemistry and flow modelling for design of fuel-efficient engines

• advanced modelling tools for improved aircraft design

• noise reduction through combustion control and fractal grid flaps

• structural health monitoring for reduced maintenance

• efficient processing techniques for bio fuels and their associated techno-economic and sustainability issues

• investigation and analysis of the environmental impact of aviation

The diagram below gives an indication of the spread of these research activities across the College.

Within this document we provide more detail of our Green Aviation research activities that are contributing to the following four key targets:

>> Low emissions

>> Low noise

>> Low weight

>> Low maintenance

I hope you find this description of Imperial’s Green Aviation research to be useful and informative.

Dr Paul RobinsonDirector, Green AviationDepartment of Aeronautics

Atmospheric physicsDepArtment of phySICS

Green Aviation solutions for the future 3


The public awareness of the environmental issues surrounding transport is very significant but the air transport sector attracts particular attention. Aircraft technologies, airport planning (including the supporting transport infrastructure) and air traffic management are all vital components in a complex multi-faceted challenge that the air transport sector must address to deliver greener air travel for future generations. According to the Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research in Europe (ACARE), global civil aviation emission of CO2 in 2008 represented 2% of the man-made CO2 emission.1 Noise around airports affecting neighbouring communities is another important environmental factor. If no action is taken, the emissions and noise problems will significantly increase since the world passenger traffic is predicted to grow by 4.7% per annum over the next 15 years.

The targets set by the ACARE include:

• improved CO2 efficiency by an average of 1.5% per year up to 2020

• reduced net CO2 emission by 50% by 2050 (compared to 2005 levels)

• reduced nitrogen oxides by 80%

• reduced perceived noise by 50%

In recent meetings leading figures from the air transport sector have described key aspects of the green aviation challenge and some of the measures being taken to address them.2 Historical data indicate that aviation has been successful in reducing fuel burn. In the last 50 years the aircraft fuel consumption has reduced by 70% per passenger kilometre through technological advances in both engine and airframe.1 (A 1% structural weight saving, can lead to around 0.5% to 1.5% reduction in fuel consumption.)

Continuing these improvements (see CO2 Roadmap) depends on many factors including aircraft configuration and design optimisation following weight change. In the ‘Airbus Holistic Road Map to the Future’ it is estimated that a further reduction of 10% in fuel consumption is possible through airframe aerodynamic improvements such as natural or hybrid flow control, advanced riblet techniques, low-drag technology and innovative configurations. After 2020, it is envisaged that development work will progress towards the next generation of radically innovative technologies such as blended-wing-body configuration with an estimated 20% additional fuel efficiency. Improved operational practices coupled with optimised aircraft deployment across a network have the potential of 5% reduction in fuel consumption and as much as a further 12% reduction possible through better overall flight planning.

The IATA targets.

A cap on aviation CO2

emissions from 2020 (carbon-

neutral growth)

A reduction in CO2 emissions

of 50% by 2050, relative to

2005 levels

An average improvement in

fuel efficiency of 1.5% per

year from 2009 to 2020

Green aviation challenge


Sustainable Aviation CO2 Roadmap – projected future emissions of CO2 from UK aviation.

The required technological advances identified by the aeronautics sector to achieve the long term goals of greener aviation have been reported by ACARE1 and presented by leading figures from the air transport sector at Imperial’s Green Aviation symposium series.2 These advances include:

• configuration and overall aircraft design

>> alternative configurations to achieve step change as there is a limit in continuous improvements of conventional configurations

• aerodynamics and flight performance

>> step changes in flow control and drag-reduction using both active and passive systems

• systems

>> health monitoring as the technological framework for integration of new enabling technologies, affecting structures and cabin, with improvements in safety, reducing weight, consumption and cost

>> advanced aircraft control systems to support control of unconventional systems and unstable structures

• structures

>> light weight metallic materials, low cost alloys

>> composites have step change potential, enabled through nano-technologies etc., self-repairing, signal carrying, electrical conductance

>> bio-composites

>> multi-functional materials and related integrated solutions, adaptive structures capable of modifying properties or geometry according to demand

• in-service support technologies

>> step change to allow for zero/ultra low maintenance

• power plant

>> novel engine architectures

>> more electric engines

>> power plants for alternative fuels

• air traffic management

>> 4D flight planning and execution

>> optimisation of aircraft mission in time and space

2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050

CO₂ e

mis

sion

s (r

elat

ive

to y

ear 2

000)

3.5

3

2.5

2

1.5

1

0.5

0

Constant technology levelOperations and ATM (ACARE)Engine/airframe (ACARE)

Sustainable fuelsEng/airframe (post-ACARE)Residual emissions

1 Beyond Vision 2020 (towards 2050) – ACARE www.acare4europe.org2 Presentations from Imperial’s Green Aviation symposium series www.imperial.ac.uk/greenaviation (see page 26)


To succeed in reducing emissions it will be necessary to develop and implement new technologies across the aviation system. Reducing engine emissions is part of the story but significant advances can also be made through modifying the design and configuration of the aircraft as well as optimising air traffic management.

Low dragThe most important issue in reducing overall emissions is to increase the efficiency of the aircraft – the greatest challenge to maximum efficiency being drag.

Drag reduction for aircraft is extremely challenging: more than half of the drag arises simply through surface friction, and nearly as much (somewhat less than half the total) is generated as a consequence of the aircraft having to generate lift, so-called ‘lift-dependent’ drag. Reducing the extent of separated flow towards the trailing edge increases the lift as well as reducing drag arising from pressure differences (‘form drag’) in the direction of the wing chord. Computational fluid dynamics methods are now so good that this drag component can be minimised by careful design alone. As a consequence, it is the frictional, lift-independent drag that offers the greater potential for drag reduction and is therefore the one that is the focus of much recent research.

Roughly half of friction drag is generated by the wings, and half by the fuselage. This is inevitable, but the drag generated by a turbulent flow on the surface is about four to five times that produced by laminar flow. On the wings therefore, the delay of the onset of laminar-to-turbulent transition reduces drag. On the fuselage, reducing the turbulent friction drag also offers potentially huge drag and emissions reductions.

In the case of wings, Natural Laminar Flow Control (LFC) has been a fruitful area of development with no concomitant penalties in terms of weight. On the other hand, Hybrid Laminar Flow Control (HLFC) involves active, steady suction near the leading edge to control leading-edge contamination and cross-flow instabilities. This technique can ensure that the boundary layer remains laminar up to the shock location, but it does lead to additional penalties associated with both weight and power of the suction device.

Surface excrescences, gaps between the flaps and the main wing and shock waves, also generate drag. Together these contribute only 5–10% of the total drag. Tailoring the wing shape can be an effective way of minimising the strength of shocks that form in the region of maximum lift generation on the wing. ‘Wave drag’ arises through the presence of shock waves appearing on a wing at high speed, and represents the cost of the energy expended in the shock formation.

Drag reduction therefore has to be tackled by a number of approaches, each requiring a range of expertise and skills, computational, experimental and theoretical.

Laminar flow control and the delay of transitionExisting transition prediction methods rely exclusively on empirical approaches having little input from our current understanding. The major challenge is to devise innovative descriptions of the flow physics, which can be used by engineers to predict transition with the degree of accuracy needed for viable laminar flow control strategies. These problems can only be solved using an interdisciplinary team involving both engineers and mathematicians with close industrial collaboration.

EPSRC has funded the assembly of such a team with the recent award of a large programme grant in laminar flow control which is led by Imperial College London.

Turbulent skin-friction reductionFlow control research in the Department of Aeronautics for turbulent drag reduction involves computational, theoretical and experimental studies. Simulations resolving all details of the turbulence processes show that the use of in-plane surface waves can reduce the skin friction by as much as 45%. Ongoing work involves developing techniques for spatially evolving boundary layers subject to on/off actuation, and it also suggests that such a technique may be viable at flight Reynolds numbers. Recent theoretical work shows that some basic aspects of this phenomenon may be explained by a relatively simple, linear model. Experimental verification at tunnel Reynolds numbers is underway, including the development of novel prototype actuators that are able to generate both in-plane and out-of-plane surface waves. The approach also makes use of actuators operating at resonance to maximise their efficiency.

>> Low emissions


Shape optimisation – the reduction of pressure dragOther approaches to drag reduction being explored at Imperial involve the use of ‘smart’ materials to optimise wing shape for any part of the flight envelope. Such an approach – a ‘morphing wing’ – can use sophisticated optimisation techniques in which the effect on the flow (and hence the drag) due to shape changes can be estimated in real time. One of the most important parts of the flight envelope is the maintenance of lift at low speed, such as when landing. This enables aircraft to adopt a ‘steepest descent’ on approach, therefore minimising times during ‘stacking’, and therefore emissions. So-called ‘high-lift’ devices allow aircraft to land at lower speed, hence offering fuel savings due to more economical use of airport operating space, both in the air and on the ground. This has the added benefit of reduced noise for shorter periods.

Shape optimisation – the reduction of wave dragA further form of wing-shape contouring is used at Imperial to attenuate the interaction between a shock wave and the flow beneath it on the wing’s upper surface. Three-dimensional contouring is used to control the shock wave, making it steadier. This reduces the unsteady loads on the wing thereby minimizing fatigue and has the added benefit of reducing wave drag.

The use of feedback controlThere is significant potential for greater drag (and power) reductions using active devices with feedback control, where the effectiveness of a particular form of actuation can be optimised and the duty cycle of actuators minimized. For this long term vision to be realised much work is being undertaken in the Department of Aeronautics to devise realistic models of flow phenomena, such as those ‘coherent structures’ responsible for skin-friction drag. Models for effective control have to be of low order while still retaining a sufficient description of the dynamics to be effective. Moreover, such an approach has to be tempered with realistic estimates of power consumption and weight. Above all, any drag reduction system must be several times redundant for it to be practicable. This work is in its infancy.

DRAG REDUCTION THROUGH SURFACE OSCILLATION• wall oscillation can reduce drag by

up to 40%

• streaks also oscillate following the wall motion, so disrupting the production of surface skin friction

• simulations and experiments are being used to find the optimum form of surface motion

• simulations and experiments are being conducted to determine whether the technique has potential at flight Reynolds numbers

• the key features are predicted by linear theory

Predicted near-wall turbulent streaks perturbed by the oscillatory motion. Schematic of oscillatory wall actuation normal to flow direction.


Aircraft configuration Aerospace vehicle design focuses on developing innovative green aircraft design concepts to meet challenging future operational requirements. Supported by the departmental full-motion flight simulator, research is concentrated on the design and optimisation of advanced conceptual designs and the development of novel configurations that take advantage of emerging technologies for new operational requirements. We are developing design, optimisation and flight simulation methods to reliably evaluate their potential advantages and operational characteristics.

Engine optimisationIn pursuing solutions to reduced environmental impact it is important to consider the role of engine design and in particular the atomiser and combustor specification which together are key to engine efficiency. The Thermofluids Research Division within the Department of Mechanical Engineering is developing tools and techniques for modelling flow and combustion within aircraft engines.

A key element of reducing emissions relates to the design of the engine combustor and using a combination of advanced computation and laser diagnostics it is possible to improve engine efficiency and reduce both fuel consumption and the formation harmful gases.

An understanding of the interactions of chemistry and flow is key to emission reduction and the design of fuel-efficient engines. The formulation of accurate chemical mechanisms, the modelling of chemistry-turbulence interactions and their implementation into prediction methods for turbulent flow is at the core of our activities.

A further key activity relates to the fuel sprays and gas flows and to help understand this interaction we are developing laser diagnostics and large eddy simulation for atomisation and droplet dispersion.

Additional activities include:

• Design guidelines for altitude relight

• Determine atomiser design for combustion performance

• Design guidelines for stable combustion

• Influence of alternative fuels on combustor design

• The investigation of novel combustion modes that are intrinsically less polluting

• The impact of fuel specification in the context of fuel flexibility

Both atomiser and combustor design are, in turn, affected by the fuel specification which will be fundamentally changed by the introduction of alternative and bio-derived fuels, the focus of further research at Imperial.

PROGRAMME GRANT IN LAMINAR FLOW CONTROLLFC-UK: Development of Underpinning Technology for Laminar Flow Control is a programme grant coordinated by Imperial College London with a budget of £4.2 million funded jointly by EPSRC, Airbus and EADS-IW. The objective of the project is to address improved aerodynamics, and develop the underpinning technology for Laminar Flow Control (LFC), the technology of drag reduction on aircraft. The development of viable LFC designs requires sophisticated mathematical, computational and experimental investigations of the onset of transition to turbulence and its control. Existing tools are too crude to be useful and contain little input from the flow physics. The solution of these problems will lead to a giant leap in our understanding of transition prediction and enable LFC to be deployed. The programme is based around a unique team of researchers covering all theoretical, computational, and experimental aspects of the problem together with the necessary expertise to make sure the work can be deployed by industry. Indeed our partnership with EADS and Airbus UK will put the UK aeronautics industry in the lead to develop the new generation of LFC wings. The programme grant is led by the Department of Mathematics and co-hosted with the Department of Aeronautics.

Transition of a flow in a fin-plate junction from a laminar to a turbulent state: derived from a direct numerical simulation.


Biofuels Aviation biofuels offer a real opportunity to reduce the total CO2 impact at the point of use. Biofuels are, however, not without their own challenges and controversies. The potential growth in demand for bio-aviation fuels will inevitably meet the same challenges that have faced land-based transport biofuels. Assessing their full life-cycle impact, net CO2 contribution and impact upon food production is a strong focus for Imperial’s Centre for Environmental Policy.

In order to introduce biofuels on a mass scale innovative supply chains options are required and in addition to the techno-economic assessments, full life-cycle and sustainability assessments are also necessary to guide its development.

Whilst biofuels have already been proven to be compatible in principle, a major hurdle to widespread use of biofuels at present is the requirement for advanced, innovative, conversion systems covering both biological and thermochemical conversion systems.

The Centre for Environmental Policy is leading the way in addressing the above issues and is actively co-ordinating a number of research groups across the College in order to bring together the appropriate expertise to realise the required innovative solutions.

Air traffic management Whilst many of the necessary technological solutions to the challenges faced by the aviation industry may be years, potentially decades, away from maximum impact, research at Imperial into air traffic management and aircraft operations has the potential for more immediate change.

Taking the lead in this area is the Centre for Transport studies with activities covering ATM concepts, airport operations and environmental impact.

With expertise in modelling and optimisation of capacity and safety, the Centre is leading the way in studying future ATM concepts such as integrated gate-to-gate 4D operations and future trajectory management. Specific expertise is in developing improvements in satellite positioning to affect both the flight paths of aircraft and air traffic management during take-off and landing in order to improve both operational effectiveness and reduce overall fuel demand.

Additional research activities include infrastructure and operational considerations surrounding the integration of air and landside channels to minimise environmental impacts while maximising capacity and safety.

In seeking to develop optimised solutions, the Centre also considers the environmental impact of activities and assessments are used to model development and best practice. In situ deployment of pollution monitoring networks and associated techniques are a vital part of this work and link closely broader Green Aviation environmental activities.

The Centre works extensively with both industry and regulators including NATS, UKCAA, Eurocontrol, SESAR and a number of airline operators such as Easyjet.

ClimateWhilst work is underway to reduce emissions from aviation, the full impact of this sector on the climate remains a topic of research. Imperial’s Grantham Institute for Climate Change was founded with a mandate to drive forward climate-related research, translating this into real world impact and communicating their knowledge to help shape decision-making. Under the direction of the internationally renowned meteorologist, Professor Sir Brian Hoskins, the Institute can offer advice on the possible impact of aviation on the climate.

PolicyThe management of aviation-linked pollution will ultimately be driven by legislation, requiring agreement at both the national and supranational level if international travel is to continue unabated. Through its links to the UK’s Committee on Climate Change and working with industrial partners, the Institute is able to consider the latest thinking regarding aviation scenarios in the UK. The Grantham Institute also hosts a Policy Team, which is instrumental in supporting the translation of research for policy makers in government and decision makers in business. Through their research into areas such as carbon leakage, the team is able to provide insight into the mechanisms by which aviation emissions may be measured and apportioned to countries.


>> Low noise Economic growth of airline

markets has been the major factor for greater demand for air travel. Current forecasts of future air travel are showing demand that exceeds current airport capacity and potential expansion at existing airports. Construction of new airports appears to be the only solution to accommodate growth.

However, aircraft noise remains one of the greatest barriers to airport expansion and new airport construction around the world. The US General Accounting Office (GAO, 2000a) has reported noise as the greatest environmental concern for the busiest US airports. A similar report was made by Matthew Gorman, Corporate Responsibility and Environment Director, for Heathrow Airport.*

Aircraft noise is from four sources: engine, propulsion and airframe interactions, high-lift devices and landing gear. There is not much change in the engine noise during take-off and landing, however, the airframe noise is significantly higher during landing compared to take off.

Reducing noise of aircraft systems

Fractal grid spoilersSpoilers are deployed during aircraft landing and act to reduce lift and increase drag. The contribution of spoilers and other control surfaces to the overall noise produced by an aircraft during landing is an important issue. During descent (with engines at idle), a large proportion of the audible sound at ground level is generated by the engines and the airframe. Sometimes one can hear from the ground (and also from inside the cabin) a noticeable decrease in the pitch of the produced noise when control surfaces, such as spoilers, are deployed. This frequency shift is caused in part by the appearance of a fluctuating recirculation region in the wake of the deployed spoilers, which can in itself produce an unwanted transient increase in lift and lead to vibration of the airframe. The problem is compounded for small aircraft where the vibration is amplified and the noise not as muted inside the cabin as the spoilers are closer to the fuselage.

Fractal spoilers are a new concept that has been very recently introduced by the Department of Aeronautics at Imperial College London. It has already been demonstrated that such devices can reduce noise by up to 4dB (relative to conventional spoilers) while preserving the main lift and drag characteristics required of a spoiler. This was achieved without any optimisation of this new technology leaving much room for improvement. The mechanism responsible for this sound attenuation involves the interaction of the high frequency turbulence generated by the fractal spoiler with the recirculation region generated downstream of the spoiler. Fractal spoilers perform much better than porous spoilers made of regular grid porosity because the peak turbulence intensity they create can be designed to be much further downstream, thus causing a persistent destructive effect within the recirculation. In contrast, porous spoilers with a regular grid produce a peak in turbulence intensity much closer to the spoiler, which limits the extent of the beneficial interference.

The low-frequency fluctuations of the recirculation region cause a significant low-frequency noise which the appropriately designed turbulence depletes by acting on the recirculation zone, effectively detaching it from the spoiler. The high frequency noise due to the turbulence generated by the fractal spoiler is rapidly attenuated by the atmosphere (the attenuation of high frequency pressure fluctuations is much faster than low frequency ones). An added benefit of this multi-scale/fractal spoiler approach is the removal of the transient increase in lift which often occurs with standard spoilers.

* Meeting environmental capacity limits at Heathrow Green Aviation 2011, Imperial College London, 6 January 2011


Supressing combustion and thermo-acoustic instabilitiesIn order to develop green solutions for the industry it is necessary to overcome not just CO2 emissions but also other gases such as NOx. The development of low NOx, reduced noise combustors for aero-engines is limited by the problem of combustion instabilities caused by two-way coupling between unsteady combustion and acoustic waves. Current research aims to develop methods of supressing these instabilities through either active control or tuned passive control.

Models have been developed which match well to experimental results and can monitor fuel flow rate and combustion instabilities. The next steps are to extend these models to consider adaptive control approaches, automatically tracking any changes in operating conditions of the engine, to take into account more realistic flame models.

Modelling of noise around airportsThe effect of aircraft operations on the noise climate around airports can be determined through monitoring and modelling. Noise monitoring is excessively costly due to huge arrays of noise monitors that will have to be employed to measure aircraft noise. In addition, according to CAA reports “the visual intrusion caused by an array of microphones is considered to be unacceptable to the general public”. For this reason aircraft noise models have been developed to produce accurate estimates of the noise exposure experienced around airports. Recent development in computational methods and in particular the Boundary Element Method (BEM) for open air acoustics can also be used to predict future noise levels and carry out examination of options for noise reduction and mitigation. The FAST BEM models developed in the Department of Aeronautics have been used to model aircraft approach over surrounding houses. The FAST BEM allows large scale models with several millions of degree of freedom as well as providing high accuracy in modelling sound propagation.

FRACTAL GRID SPOILERSThe aim of this area of research is to reduce the noise generated by the outboard spoilers on aircraft, through means of large-scale fractal porosity, whilst maintaining the lift and drag characteristics.

Spoilers generate a large area of unsteady re-circulating flow behind them which is the main source of the low frequency noise. Unlike other porous plates, fractal plates can be designed so as to generate turbulence at a distance commensurate with the re-circulation size while at the same time keeping relatively high blockage. This disrupts the recirculation and reduces the low frequency noise. The high frequency noise penalty of the turbulence is quickly attenuated by the atmosphere.

In proof of concept studies a reduction of up to 4dB has been observed on flat plate experiments. It is believed that by scaling up the spoilers, there will be more freedom in terms of design and the capability of producing a wider range of bleed flows, which, it is believed, would reduce the noise further whilst not affecting the aerodynamics.

Fractal spoiler in wind tunnel.



Active noise and vibration controlNoise is the most important parameter affecting passenger comfort in the aircraft after seat properties and local climate or air quality. The main contributors to aircraft interior noise are turbulent boundary layer noise, air-conditioning and engine noise (and vibrations) which are transmitted into the aircraft through the fuselage.

Today’s modern aircraft are now being designed using a human-centred approach which is defining the future guidelines for passenger and cabin crew environments with improved cabin ambience and comfort levels by reducing both noise and vibration levels.

The study of the vibroacoustic properties of advanced materials and the subsequent development of appropriate concepts for noise, vibration and harshness reduction become most effective when the actual human perception of sound and vibration are taken into account.

Active noise control is a key technology to enhance aircraft cabin comfort. Aircraft interior trim panels and windows are characterized by poor sound transmission loss behaviour at low frequencies. For next-generation transport aircraft, their impact on

the cabin vibroacoustic environment is expected to become increasingly important with the upcoming use of larger passive windows providing a weak link in protecting aircraft interior from outside noise. Research at the Aeronautics Department in collaboration with CIRA has resulted in a novel active structural acoustic control (ASAC) concept to reduce sound transmission through aircraft-type windows at low frequencies. The structural control inputs are achieved by piezoelectric actuators applied to the structure to minimize the radiating pressure field.

Imperial College London is leading a number of major research initiatives aimed at reducing the noise both internal and external to aircraft. The SEAT (Smart technologies for stress free travel) project resulted in development of active noise control and vibration for cabin using advanced optimisation and modelling techniques.

Results of passive noise control modelling

Old textile. New textile. New textile and modified headrest.


>> Low weight Achieving the IATA goals of

emissions reduction will require radical innovation. In addition to improved aerodynamics and more fuel-efficient engines, reducing the weight of the aircraft structure is a vital target for aircraft manufacturers. Weight savings in successive generations of aircraft have been achieved through improvements in materials, design and manufacture. To continue to drive down aircraft weight requires significant advances in the efficient application of existing materials and, looking further to the future, the development of innovative materials offering a dramatically improved performance.

Imperial College London has a very broad range of research activities focussed on low weight and the following sections highlight how we are advancing the understanding of high performance materials, addressing the complexity of efficient aircraft structural design through high-fidelity simulation, and developing new materials offering significant performance gains including added functionality.

Improving the understanding of aerospace materialsTo fully exploit the potential of a material and so enable the design of optimum, low weight aircraft structures, it is important to thoroughly understand how that material will behave when subjected to the stresses and environment that will be encountered during operation of the aircraft. Improving the understanding of aerospace materials is a major research activity at Imperial.

Carbon fibre reinforced polymer composites have long been recognised as providing high stiffness and strength with low weight and are therefore used extensively in the latest fuel efficient civil aircraft such as the Boeing 787 and Airbus A380. These materials are particularly attractive because of the ability to optimally tailor the arrangement of the fibre reinforcement but this characteristic also means that the behaviour of these materials is inherently more complex than that of metals and other isotropic materials.

Imperial has been extensively involved in research into the performance of composite materials for over 30 years. A major focus of our research activity is on understanding and characterising the failure processes in these materials. Our typical approach uses well-designed experiments (often guided by finite element modelling and employing advanced fractographic analysis techniques) to enable a failure mechanism to be rigorously investigated. A recent example is an in-depth re-examination of the compression failure mechanism of unidirectional composites. This research has provided a sound, physically-based foundation for the development of accurate predictive failure models. Related work is also underway on compression failure of woven fabric composites.

As well as gaining an in-depth understanding of failure mechanisms, Imperial’s composites research includes a long track record in the development and evaluation of characterisation test methods for measuring key mechanical properties required by engineers for the design and accurate simulation of composite structures. This work has included test techniques for the measurement of compression strength, interlaminar toughness (the resistance to separation of the layers in a laminated composite) and, more recently, translaminar toughness. This last property is essential for the prediction of the initiation and the propagation of a through-thickness crack in a composite panel. Knowledge of this allows designers to produce structures which are resistant to initiation of translaminar cracks and, in the event of accidental in-service damage, to predict how rapidly the damage will grow.


The composites research activities described so far have been associated with relatively slow (quasi-static) loading rates but there are also major programmes addressing impact behaviour and the associated characterisation of material properties at high loading rates. This research covers a range of events from a tool dropped during maintenance to a bird striking the aircraft during flight. Understanding the damage developed in these impact events is important for the design of impact-tolerant structures. Work at Imperial ranges from drop weight impact testing at a few m/s through to ballistic impact at speeds in excess of 1km/s. The development of tests for mechanical properties at high rates (providing important data to impact simulation tools for use in design) includes Hopkinson bar tension tests of fibres and high-speed translaminar toughness testing.

Despite the uptake of polymer matrix composites in aircraft structures, metals continue to play an important role particularly where the stress fields are complex and of high magnitude and where the operating environment is harsh (for example, within engines). Current work in the Department of Materials at Imperial is investigating how titanium alloys can be modified through microstructural engineering to optimise mechanical properties and maximise strength. Texture evolution during processing is also being investigated using a 3rd generation synchrotron with the aim of identifying processing techniques which can be used to produce components with improved fatigue performance.

Much of the research summarised here has been focussed on improving the understanding of the mechanical performance of materials but Imperial is also engaged in experimental investigations at the structural detail and component levels. The structural behaviour is dependent on design features, manufacturing tolerances as well as the behaviour of the material itself. This research is frequently performed to provide validation of the predictions by simulation tools. Recent such investigations include bolted joints in composites, the post buckling behaviour of stiffened panels and stiffener run-out behaviour in compression.

THE COMPOSITES CENTREIn 1983 Imperial established the Composites Centre to help coordinate and promote its growing portfolio of composites research. Today the composites research community is as strong as ever. Composites research extends across engineering and science departments (Aeronautics, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Materials and Mechanical Engineering) and is supported by extensive facilities for the manufacture, inspection and testing of composite materials. Through these facilities and the expertise of its staff, an unusually broad range of research activities in composites has been developed. This research includes the development of new composites, characterisation of the behaviour of composite materials and an extensive modelling capability which specifically addresses the complexities inherent in fibre reinforced architectures. A notable feature of many of the composites research projects at Imperial is the strong multi-disciplinary approach which is often essential to achieving significant advances in this field.

Carbon nanotubes grown on surface of a silica fibre are stripped off to examine surface damage. Carbon nanotubes grown on surface of a silica fibre are stripped off to examine surface damage.


Modelling for more efficient design The design process for modern, fuel efficient civil aircraft is complex, costly and time consuming. Modelling tools which accurately simulate the behaviour of aircraft structures can significantly reduce the design time and also greatly reduce the reliance on expensive physical testing during the investigation and development of design solutions. Modelling tools are therefore vital in the drive towards optimal low weight aircraft and their development and application constitute a major research focus at Imperial College London.

The Department of Aeronautics at Imperial has a long history in the modelling of aircraft structural behaviour with origins in the very early stages of the development of the finite element method. The recent research at Imperial has strongly focussed on the development of modelling tools for the accurate simulation of failure in aircraft structures but modelling has also been developed for simulation of manufacturing processes for metal structures, for the trajectory of debris thrown up by the aircraft wheels during take-off (see Low maintenance section), for noise control strategies and for the investigation and design of structural health monitoring systems.

The development of modelling tools for structures manufactured from fibre reinforced composites is particularly important. As noted earlier, composites offer the designer an unrivalled capacity for optimisation to suit the function of a particular component (through the choice of the materials for fibre and matrix, and the selection of the orientation and architecture of the fibre reinforcement) but the failure processes of composites are very complex and accurate simulation tools are essential to enable failure to be properly considered during the design process. Our research therefore has a significant focus on the development and implementation of failure criteria for accurately predicting failure initiation. However accurate prediction of the initiation of failure does not give a complete picture of the behaviour of a composite structure; an

understanding of how that failure subsequently propagates is also very important and so we have major projects developing and evaluating energy-based fracture mechanics approaches for the simulation of failure propagation. These tools are being developed for polymer matrix composite structures using unidirectional, 2-D woven, 3-D woven and braided fibre architectures and for fibre–metal hybrid materials. The loading regimes being considered include quasi-static, cyclic and impact events.

Our composites modelling research is being conducted over a range of length scales. Representation of individual fibres and matrix is usually the smallest scale considered and this has been used extensively at Imperial for investigating the fundamentals of particular failure modes. Fibre–matrix micromechanical models have also been developed for prediction of the stiffness properties of composites with complex architectures such as 3-D weaves (using a voxel discretisation approach) and braided composites (using meshless methods).

Moving up through the length scales, lamina level modelling (in which the discrete layer containing fibre and matrix is represented in a homogenised form) is used in applications where the interaction of failures within laminae and between laminae (delaminations) is to be investigated. Examples of the application of this modelling from recent and current research in the Department of Aeronautics include laminates containing open holes, bolted joints, stiffener run-out configurations and high-fidelity impact simulations.

At the larger scale (for example to simulate the wing of an aircraft) the challenges posed for failure modelling are very considerable. To control the simulation run-times, laminates will most usually be represented by homogenised plates and the complexity of the structural details will be represented in a simplified form (so, for example, bolts and bolt holes will not be explicitly represented in detail). However failures will depend on the stresses developed at smaller

DAMAGE TOLERANCE FOR NEW STRUCTURAL CONCEPTSDaTon (Innovative Fatigue and Damage Tolerance Methods for the Application of New Structural Concepts) was an EU project was coordinated by IFL in Germany and included Airbus and a number of academic institutions around Europe. The aim of the project was to allow the industry to use newly developed manufacturing methods, which all promise high efficiency but lack a good damage tolerance capability under certain circumstances. The project developed new damage tolerance assessment tools for the following manufacturing techniques: High Speed Cutting (HSC), Laser Beam Welding (LBW) and Friction Stir Welding (FSW) – all three leading to a type of structure which is close to an integral structural design. This design offers benefits (for example, low cost) but significant concerns remain about the damage tolerance capacity. Researchers from the Department of Aeronautics developed advanced computational methods based on boundary elements and finite elements for assessment of the damage tolerance of integrally stiffened structures, manufactured by FSW. The methods were validated against full scale test results of stiffened panels.

Integrally stiffened structure.


scales (at least at the lamina level) and the detail of geometry and layup can have a considerable influence on the initiation and propagation of failure. To address this issue global-local models are being developed which automatically detect potential failure sites in the large scale model. A refined local model is then generated to identify damage development and this supplies the reduced local stiffness characteristics back to the global model for further analysis iterations.

Multi-scale analysis techniques are being developed to bridge the length scales all the way from the fibre-matrix level through to the component level and is particularly useful for complex composite architectures which are difficult to characterise experimentally. Research in the Department of Aeronautics is also applying this approach to capture the initiation of intergranular failure in fatigue of polycrystalline metal alloys and the subsequent failure accumulation and propagation to cause failure of the component.

The advances in the capabilities of modelling tools described above are being applied in several research programmes investigating optimal light weight structures. The improved design of stiffened panel composite structures is one example in which the aim is to produce a design that is both lightweight and robust by including manufacturing tolerances in the model and predicting their effect on failure development.

Another example of structural optimisation has arisen from our improved damage modelling of impact events. Impact simulations are of particular importance for composite aircraft structures. Fibre reinforced composite structures subjected to low velocity impacts can suffer extensive internal damage without any visible signs of this on the outer surface. Techniques have been developed to predict the impact damage and, importantly, the residual strength of the damaged structure. Current research in the Department of Aeronautics is refining the damage modelling to more accurately capture the interaction of damage modes that occur during impact which is key

for the subsequent prediction of the residual strength. Research is also now linking these models to optimisation algorithms to allow rapid design of light weight composite structures which are more robust to the impact threat.

Imperial’s impact modelling research for civil aviation has a strong focus on low velocity and birdstrike events. However we also have a significant research activity investigating ballistic impact which has been developed primarily for defence applications. This capability is now being applied to future green aircraft concepts using open rotor engines in which there is the potential of a failed blade impacting the fuselage and other structural components at high speeds.

As mentioned earlier the modelling research at Imperial has been applied to new manufacturing processes which hold the potential for the production of improved lightweight structures. Friction stir welding is one example which has been investigated at Imperial. This manufacturing technique enables low weight stiffened panels to be developed that were not possible a few years ago. Modelling tools were developed to assess residual stress fields and enable predictions of crack growth and validated against experimental results.

PROGRAMME GRANT IN DUCTILE COMPOSITESHiPerDuCT: High Performance Ductile Composite Technology is a programme grant with a budget of £6.4 million funded by EPSRC. Conventional composites such as carbon fibre reinforced plastics have outstanding mechanical properties: high strength and stiffness, low weight, and low susceptibility to fatigue and corrosion. Despite this progress, a fundamental and as yet unresolved limitation of current composites is their inherent brittleness. Failure is usually sudden and catastrophic, with little or no warning. As a result complex maintenance procedures are required and a significantly greater safety margin than for other materials. We will design, manufacture and evaluate a range of composite systems with the ability to fail gradually, undergoing large deformations whilst still carrying load. Energy will be absorbed by ductile or pseudo-ductile response, analogous to yielding in metals, with strength and stiffness maintained, and clear evidence of damage. To achieve such an ambitious outcome will require a concerted effort to develop new composite constituents and exploit novel architectures.

Brittle failure in stiffened composite panel.



New materials for the future Better use of the capabilities of current high performance materials is already producing lighter aircraft structures but further weight reduction in the future will increasingly be dependent upon the development of new improved materials. At Imperial, the main drive in this area is to create materials with significantly enhanced mechanical performance but the potential for added functionality is also receiving considerable attention.

Imperial College London has extensive research activities aimed at the development of fibre reinforced polymer matrix composites with improved mechanical performance. These activities draw on expertise and facilities in the Departments of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Aeronautics for synthesis, manufacturing, testing and modelling in this field. A large part of this research is investigating how the outstanding properties of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) can be used to improve the characteristics of conventional carbon fibre reinforced composites. An important line of investigation is the incorporation of CNTs into the matrix phase of conventional fibre composites. A variety of techniques to introduce the CNTs is being explored by the team at Imperial, one of which involves growing the CNTs on the surface of the conventional carbon fibres. The advantage of this technique is that the distribution of the CNTs can be well controlled within the composite. Combining conventional fibres and CNTs in a composite to form a hierarchical reinforcement architecture offers the possibility of significantly improved matrix-controlled properties such as fibre-direction compression strength and interlaminar toughness. Improvement in other, non-mechanical properties may also be beneficial for future aircraft applications. For example, the enhanced electrical conductivity which results from the introduction of CNTs may reduce the need for lightning strike protection.

Current carbon fibre composites are strong, stiff and light but they often exhibit a brittle failure mode. If this failure mode could be changed to a more ductile process then there will be substantial benefits for future aircraft design as well as in many other applications. Recently Imperial College London and Bristol University have jointly been awarded a large grant by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to address this problem. The aim is to devise new composites that exhibit significant ductility in their failure process – see the case study for more details. This prestigious award puts Imperial researchers at the forefront of composite materials innovation in the UK.

Adding extra functionality to a material, beyond the mechanical performance required for use in structural components, can enable weight reduction (by reducing or eliminating the need for other systems on the aircraft) and may deliver other benefits e.g. reduced drag in the case of a morphing

capability. Currently there are research projects at Imperial investigating the development of materials with additional performance functions to provide adaptive shape control, electrical energy storage and self-repair.

NiTi-based shape memory alloys have the capability to provide actuation for shape change but suffer cyclic degradation. The Department of Materials is investigating the cause of this degradation and examining strategies to create stable, repeatable actuation. In related work, the Departments of Aeronautics and Chemical Engineering are developing composites with controllable flexural stiffness. These materials, in which the flexural stiffness can be temporarily decreased on demand, could reduce the actuation system requirements in morphing structures.

The capability to store electrical energy in structural polymer matrix composites has been the focus of a series of research projects undertaken by a team from the Departments of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Aeronautics. The team has developed demonstrator materials to prove the concept is viable and the current EU-funded project (STORAGE) will develop and characterise composites using a nanostructured matrix material to achieve optimum electrical and mechanical properties. The same team, on this occasion working with colleagues at Bristol University, are also looking at the exciting prospect of self-healing composite structural materials. Imperial’s research is developing and evaluating a strategy for incorporating microcapsules to release the healing agent in the event of damage.

Finally, researchers in the Departments of Aeronautics and Chemical Engineering are addressing the important issue of recycling of composite materials, either waste from the aircraft manufacturing process or at the end of the life of an aircraft. One research project is examining methods of recovering the reinforcing fibres from the composite material and a second project is examining the mechanical behaviour of short fibre composites produced using the recovered fibres and developing predictive tools for the properties of these materials. These recycled composites have the potential to be re-used in future aircraft for aircraft interiors.

(Top) Translaminar toughness testing of composites.

(Bottom) Autoclave for composites manufacture.


>> Low maintenance

Aircraft maintenance involves periodic inspections after a certain number of flights or amount of time. Aircraft operators follow a continuous inspection program approved by European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) or the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Current airworthiness standards (such as FAR 25.571 and AC 20-107A) set by these authorities require the evaluation of the damage tolerance for airframe design. Damage tolerance refers to the ability of the design to prevent structural cracks or damage from precipitating catastrophic fracture when the frame is subjected to flight or ground loads.

Airframe structures are generally made damage tolerant by means of redundant (fail-safe) designs for which the inspection intervals are set to provide at least two inspection opportunities in the number of fights it would take for a visually detectable crack to grow large enough to cause a failure in flight. Aircraft manufacturers are required as part of the certification processes to perform tests and analyses to demonstrate compliance with these airworthiness requirements.

Damage tolerant structuresThe reliability of damage detection during scheduled inspections and follow-up repairs is essential for damage tolerant structures. The inspection and maintenance program is established to minimise the risk. A reduced number of inspections increases the probability of failure whilst too many inspections will lead to an increase in life cycle costs and reduced operational times. The challenge is to adhere to increasing demands for lower weight and greater safety and at the same time to reduce maintenance by having fewer scheduled inspections. This challenge is being partly met through development of effective and efficient advanced mathematical models to allow better knowledge of the behaviour of flaws in airframe structures ranging from material degradation and crack initiation to crack growth during service and eventual failure of the aircraft structure.

A recently completed TSB-funded project (Structural Adhesive Bonding of thick Components for Advanced Design– SABCAD) has investigated a bonded approach to wing construction. The project, coordinated by Airbus UK, explored the use of lower density aluminium lithium materials and fibre metallic laminate (FML) in both monolithic and laminated metallic sections for innovative wing design concepts. Modelling and design tools were developed and applied to optimise the design of a metallic laminate wing cover. Our research provided validated predictive models of multi-layered metallic laminates and fibre metallic laminates for simulation of static residual strength, fatigue and crack propagation behaviour. Testing and modelling was carried out to optimise the design and understand interfacial effects in adhesively bonded, thick, metallic laminates. Hybrid composites such as FML show greater fatigue properties and slower crack growth in comparison to the metallic laminates which should result in fewer inspections and hence reduced maintenance. The new material combinations will provide superior structural efficiencies for large aerospace structures via improved fatigue and static strength performance and reduced weight and corrosion. Lower weight will give greater fuel burn efficiency and lower emissions over an aircraft’s lifetime as well.

Composite materials are being used in aircraft primary structures such as Boeing 787 and A350 wings and fuselage. In these applications, stringent requirements on weight, damage tolerance and reliability are satisfied. Current guidelines for general aircraft maintenance were established largely for metallic airframes. Deterministic fracture and damage criteria do not provide accurate representation of variability of parameters encountered in


composites and stochastic models are necessary. We have developed new methods for determining the probability of failure and constructing distribution functions for critical responses.

High cycle fatigue is an important cause of failure in aircraft structures. Delamination is a major damage mechanism in composites and it is important to understand the onset and propagation of delamination under repeated loading of the structure. Newly developed finite element models (as part of Maaximus FP7 project) are enabling prediction of the onset and propagation of delamination allowing better design and predictions of stiffener run-outs and bonded joints.

Runway debrisRunway stones thrown up by aircraft tyres can lead to considerable damage to aircraft structures, yet there is limited understanding of the lofting mechanisms. The original motivation studies were conducted in support of certification of Eurofighter, during which it was identified that there was no realistic measure of the threat to aircraft from such impact conditions. Subsequently, through EPSRC and MoD funding, finite element models utilising contact mechanics were developed which were validated against drop weight experiments to mimic the contact conditions between the stones, tyres and ground. In addition, the effect of such impact events on aerospace materials have been characterised using a bespoke impactor developed in the Department of Aeronautics. More recently the research has utilised aerodynamic models to mimic the interaction between the lofted stone and the airflow behind the aircraft wheel. This has culminated in the production of ‘threat maps’ which identify the sites on the aircraft lower fuselage that are exposed to the most severe impact conditions.

Adaptive structuresMorphing and adaptive concepts to allow large shape changes are increasingly being investigated for aerodynamics improvements. They can also reduce maintenance costs as with fewer parts inspections are much easier. One of the most important requirements of a morphing wing concerns the skin which has to be able to withstand aerodynamic and structural loads while being flexible enough to be morphed. Our researchers have utilised carbon fibre/polyurethane composite to fabricate a corrugated morphing wing. The aim is to optimise the shape and geometry of the corrugated skin such that the lift to drag ratio of the morphing wing is maximised. Research is under way to integrate smart actuators into the wing. Research in the Department of Aeronautics is also investigating an adaptive wing which has continuously variable camber from tip to root without separate control surfaces. This wing exhibits lower drag than its conventional equivalent and has shown to offer potential for further development. A related research project is being conducted into the aeroelastic topology using genetic algorithms for design of the compliant morphing wing substructure.

SMART INTELLIGENT AIRCRAFT STRUCTURESSARISTU (Smart Intelligent Aircraft Structures) is a level two, large-scale integrating project which aims at achieving reductions in aircraft weight and operational costs, as well as an improvement in the flight profile specific aerodynamic performance. The project focuses on integration activities in three distinct technological areas: airfoil conformal morphing, self-sensing and multifunctional structures through the use of nanoreinforced resins. Coordinated by Airbus, the SARISTU Consortium brings together 64 partners from 16 European countries. The total budget of the project is 51 M€, partially funded by the European Commission under FP7-AAT-2011-RTD-1. The Department of Aeronautics at Imperial is contributing to impact studies of fuselage panels and development of structural health monitoring methodology platform for the demonstrator wing.

Steady state response due to harmonic excitation by piezo-electric transducers used for damage detection.



Structural health monitoringThe concept of sensorised structures for the purpose of damage detection and recording changes of strain fields is of growing interest to reduce the maintenance activities as well as to improve the aircraft safety. There are many techniques which have been developed or are under investigation for detecting damage in composites. In cases of ground or non-operational inspection techniques such as ultrasonic cartography, X-ray, thermography, laser ultrasound, shearography and electro-optic holography are receiving much attention. However, possibly a more efficient and safer approach is to monitor the composite structure continuously during operation through structural health monitoring (SHM).

The types of systems widely used for structural health monitoring include piezoceramic materials, fibre-optic wires, strain gauges, microwaves, and acoustic emission sensors. Strain gauges are sensitive but give localized measurements. Acoustic emission sensors detect propagation of a crack, but do not detect damage unless it is growing, and they can be sensitive to reflections from stiffeners and noise in the measurements. Fibre-optic wires can sense strain and vibration and have successfully been integrated into composite materials. The above techniques are passive techniques that rely on unmeasured natural excitation to detect

damage. Vibration-based techniques can actively interrogate the structure for damage using a high-frequency excitation. Piezoceramic materials are used in vibration based damage detection methods to generate frequency response function or wave motions. Electromechanical SHM also uses piezoelectric patches which behave as both sensors and actuators. These methods provide an effective damage detection capability, but require a large number of sensors to detect small damages. Therefore, it is important that methodologies are developed that would allow effective optimization of sensor placement. For operational in situ monitoring, measurements from the sensor system would provide information of different levels of condition diagnosis:

• damage detection

• damage location

• damage magnitude

In a recent JTI Clean Sky project SMASH, in collaboration with Alenia Aeromachi, we have developed effective computational tools for the development and manufacturing of a sensorised stiffened composite aircraft structure for impact damage detection. Different SHM methods for piezoceramics and fibre optics sensors were developed. In SARISTU FP7 project the research is being extended to a wing demonstrator.

Development of morphing wing structure.

Modelling damage detection with active sensing

PZT Actuator PZT ActuatorDamage Damage

scattered waves

Sensor Sensor


Department of AeronauticsProfessor Ferri Aliabadi ▸ Head, Department of Aeronautics ▸ Professor of Aerostructures ● ● ●

Professor Peter Bearman ▸ Professor of Experimental Aerodynamics ●

Dr Paul Bruce ▸ Lecturer in Compressible Aerodynamics ●

Professor Sergei Chernyshenko ▸ Professor of Aerodynamics ▸ Director of MSc in Advanced Computational Methods ●

Dr Colin Cotter ▸ Senior Lecturer in Aeronautics ●

Professor Denis Doorly ▸ Professor of Fluid Mechanics ▸ Director of Undergraduate Studies ●

Professor J Michael R Graham ▸ Professor of Unsteady Aerodynamics ●

Dr Emile Greenhalgh ▸ Reader in Composite Materials ● ●

Professor Richard Hillier ▸ Professor of Compressible Flow ●

Professor Lorenzo Iannucci ▸ Professor in Advanced Structural Design and Dstl/Royal Academyof Engineering Chair in multiscale armour design ● ●

Dr Eric Kerrigan ▸ Senior Lecturer ●

Professor Michael Leschziner ▸ Professor of Computational Aerodynamics ●

Dr Aimee Morgans ▸ Senior Lecturer in Aeronautics ● ●

Professor Jonathan Morrison ▸ Head, Aerodynamics ▸ Professor of Experimental Fluid Mechanics ●

Dr Rafael Palacios-Nieto ▸ Lecturer in Aerostructures ● ●

Dr George Papadakis ▸ Reader in Aerodynamics ●

Dr Joaquim Peiro ▸ Senior Lecturer in Aeronautics ●

Dr Silvestre Pinho ▸ Reader in Aerostructures ● ●

Dr Paul Robinson ▸ Director, Green Aviation ▸ Head, Composites Centre ▸ Reader in Mechanics of Composites ▸ Director of MSc in Composites ● ●

Dr Matthew Santer ▸ Lecturer in Aerostructures ● ●

Dr Stephan Schmidt ▸ Lecturer in Computational Aircraft Design ●

Dr Varnavas Serghides ▸ Senior Lecturer in Aerospace Vehicle Design ●

Professor Spencer Sherwin ▸ Professor of Computational Fluid Mechanics ●

Dr Vito Tagarielli ▸ Lecturer in Structures ● ●

Professor J Christos Vassilicos ▸ Professor of Fluid Mechanics ▸ Director of Research ● ●

Dr Pedro Baiz Villafranca ▸ Lecturer in Aerostructures ● ●

Dr Peter Vincent ▸ Lecturer in Aeronautics ●

Department of Civil and Environmental EngineeringDr Arnab Majumdar ▸ Lecturer in Transport Risk Management ● ●

Dr Wolfgang Schuster ▸ Research Fellow ▸ Leader Intelligent Transport Systems Group▸ Leader Air Traffic Management Group ● ●

Professor Washington Ochieng ▸ Head, Centre for Transport Studies ▸ Chair in Positioning andNavigation Systems ● ●

Low emissions

Low noise

Low weight

Low maintenance

Green aviation capability


Department of Chemical EngineeringProfessor Alexander Bismark ▸ Professor of Advanced Materials ▸ Polymer and Composite Engineering (PaCE) Group ●

Department of Mechanical EngineeringDr Daniel Balint ▸ Lecturer ●

Dr Bamber Blackman ▸ Reader in the Mechanics of Materials ●

Professor Ioannis Hardalupas ▸ Professor of Multiphase Flows ● ●

Professor William Jones ▸ Head, Thermofluids Division ▸ Professor of Combustion ● ●

Professor Peter Lindstedt ▸ Professor of Thermofluids ●

Professor Kamran Nikbin ▸ Professor of Structural Integrity

Professor Alex Taylor ▸ Professor of Fluid Mechanics ● ●

Dr Ambrose Taylor ▸ Senior Lecturer ●

Department of Materials Professor Neil Alford ▸ Head, Department of Materials ▸ Deputy Principal (Research) Faculty of Engineering ● ●

Dr David Dye ▸ Senior Lecturer in Materials ● ●

Centre for Environmental PolicyDr Ausilio Bauen ▸ Head, Bioenergy Group ●

Dr Jeremy Woods ▸ Lecturer in Bioenergy ●

Department of PhysicsProfessor Joanna Haigh ▸ Head, Department of Physics ▸ Professor of Atmospheric Physics ●

Professor Ralf Toumi ▸ Professor of Atmospheric Physics ●

Department of Chemistry Professor Milo Shaffer ▸ Professor of Materials Chemistry ●

Dr Joachim Steinke ▸ Reader in Polymer Chemistry ●

Department of MathematicsProfessor Philip Hall ▸ Director of the Mathematical Sciences Res Inst ●

Professor Anatoly Ruban ▸ Chair in Applied Maths and Mathematical Physics ●

Department of Electrical and Electronic EngineeringProfessor Richard Vinter ●

Low emissions

Low noise

Low weight

Low maintenance


Green Aviation 2011

British Airways’ Carbon Reduction StrategyWillie Walsh, CEO, British Airways

The Future by AirbusAxel Krein, Senior Vice President, Research and Technology, Airbus

Green AeroEnginesRic Parker, Director of Research and Technology, Rolls-Royce

Clean Sky: Europe’s Unified Approach to Green AviationEric Dautriat, Executive Director, Clean Sky

Meeting environmental capacity limits at HeathrowMatthew Gorman, Corporate Responsibility and Environment Director, Heathrow Airport Ltd

Climate change and aviationSir Brian Hoskins, Director, Grantham Institute for Climate Change

Green Aviation 2012

A change is in the air: Virgin Atlantic’s sustainability storySteve Ridgway, Chief Executive, Virgin Atlantic

Driving the spirit of innovation forward: perspectives about aerospace and defence research trendsJean Botti, Chief Technology Officer, EADS

Sustainable aviation: technology directions to enable a better worldAllen Adler, Vice President of Enterprise Technology Strategy, Boeing

Green propulsion for the 21st centuryAlan Epstein, Vice President of Technology and Environment, Pratt & Whitney

The long haul to alternative jet fuelCharles Cameron, Head of Technology, Refining and Marketing, BP

Towards green air traffic management in European skiesAlain Siebert, Chief Economics and Environment, SESAR

Thames hubHuw Thomas, Partner, Foster + Partners

available at www.imperial.ac.uk/greenaviation

Presentations from Imperial’s Green Aviation symposium series

Honda Wind Tunnel at Imperial College London.

For further information about Green Aviation please contact

Dr Paul RobinsonDirectorGreen AviationDepartment of AeronauticsImperial College LondonSouth Kensington CampusLondon SW7 2AZ

Telephone: +44 (020) 7594 5056Email: [email protected]

www.imperial.ac.uk/greenaviation

Documents

Green Aviation booklet 2012 (1).pdf