Engineers set out to green air travel
By IANSFriday, February 5, 2010
LONDON - Carbon emissions from air travel could be reduced, thanks to collaboration between engineers from universities and aerospace industry.
The research, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and aircraft manufacturers Airbus and GKN, will be using carbon fibres that are curved within flat plates to produce damage-tolerant, buckle-free structures.
This will lead to substantial cost and weight savings of between 10 and 30 percent on structural components, saving fuel and reducing CO2 emissions from the aviation industry, in turn helping reduce the impact on the environment.
Richard Butler is leading the University of Bath team, which includes H. Alicia Kim and Giles Hunt.
The project stems from research carried out under the ABBSTRACT consortium (Airbus, Bristol, Bath STrategic Research Alliance in Composites Technology).
Paul Weaver, professor in aerospace engineering and the advanced composites Centre for Innovation and Science (ACCIS), is leading the University of Bristol team, which includes Kevin Potter and Stephen Hallett.
The Bristol-based team will be leading the development and manufacturing of the new carbon fibre materials, and the Bath team will be investigating different designs for the structures of wing panels to test their damage tolerance.
Both teams will be using mathematical modelling techniques to optimise and test their designs, said a Bath release.
