MechEngNews // Issue 10 // June 2016

ISSUE 10: June 2016

MechEngNews MechEngNews

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Contents.

Hello!

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Speak our for Engineering Mech has a winner

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Profile Dr Candice Majewski

Our students never cease to make us proud, and this quarter has been no exception.

06 Leader of the future

RAE Advanced Leadership Awards 07

SET for Britain Alastair goes to Parliament

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Where are they now?

Jenny Penn

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Mech Eng reaching out Outreach in the Department

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Bend it like Bin Flexible sheet forming

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Shell Eco Marathon Sheffield eco motorsports

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Research focus Tribo-accoustic sensors

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PhD Poster Competition Students present their work

17 Designed to win

IMechE challenge our undergraduates 18 Read all about it!

News from around the Department 20

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The run up to summer is always a busy time for students, but somehow, many of them find the time to put themselves forward for awards and come out shining. This quarter we’ve seen our students speak about their research in Parliament, be named leaders of the future and go up against industry experts to talk about engineering - and win!

This issue is packed with stories such as these, not to mention all of the great work our staff are doing on a daily basis. There is never enough room in this magazine to mention all of the amazing things our staff and students get up to, this is just the tip of the iceberg!

As always, if you have a story you’d like to share, please contact me so that I can help to spread your news!

Kat Kat Buck

Editor k.buck@sheffield.ac.uk

Follow us: @SheffMechEng

The Final Word.

/SheffMechEng MechEngNewsThis publication is produced using 100% recycled FSC certified paper

Speak out for Engineering The Speak out for Engineering competition is organised annually by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ local volunteer groups.

This year’s South Yorkshire organiser was Raman Maiti, a Research Associate in the Department.

The competition was originally established in 1964 to challenge young engineers to prove they could “communicate effectively”, which is still an important area in developing engineers today.

The competition provides young engineers with an excellent opportunity to demonstrate and develop their verbal and visual presentation skills and competence in public speaking. Competitors must give an oral presentation on a subject relating to mechanical engineering, with 90% of the total marks being awarded for presentation skills and 10% for technical content.

Area heats were judged by a panel of professionals chosen by the local committee and a winner and runner-up from each heat was awarded a place in the Yorkshire Region Final in April. The Department of Mechanical Engineering had not one, but two finalists in this year’s competition. Rasan Chandra, a fourth year MEng and Diyana Tasron a PhD student were both put through to the final at the Yorkshire Regional Dinner on 15th April where the winners were announced.

Rasan was named the overall winner with his talk on abradables in jet engines. Rasan breaks it down: “An abradable is a material which is sprayed along the circumference of the inner casing of an aero engine. During a flight, the compressor and turbine blades tend to expand in diameter which could strike the casing and cause damage to the blades. The abradable acts as a sacrificial layer so that when the compressor or turbine blade strikes it, the blades do not wear

out. Instead, this material wears out and it is much cheaper to replace compared to replacing blades.

The material also acts as a seal which reduces air flow around the blades hence reducing engine fuel consumption. Using a scaled test rig, I’m investigating how this material actually wears out by taking images of the debris ejecting from the surface of the material as the blade strikes it.”

L-R: Peter Ingham, IMechE Yorkshire Regional Chairman; Richard Folkson, IMechE President; Rasan Chandra; John Bohan, Senior Director of Elevation Recruitment

The competition is open to any Affiliate or Associate members of the IMechE, who have been professionally registered for less than 10 years.

So Rasan and Diyana were not only up against other students, but people with years of industry experience as well, which makes this an even greater achievement.

Rasan says, “When I saw the email sent out by the Department on behalf of the South Yorkshire IMechE it drew my interest as it was a public speaking competition about anything engineering related so I saw this as an opportunity to talk about my final year project.

“When I was announced the winner, I was surprised and delighted at the same time. This has given me a boost of confidence to present my upcoming viva and I will use it to pursue public speaking at higher levels.”

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Profile:

Dr Candice Majewski

What made you want to become a mechanical engineer?

Funnily enough I never actually intended to be an engineer. At school I enjoyed Maths and Physics, and was deciding between those subjects for my degree until our Careers Advisor suggested Engineering. It sounded like an interesting mix of the two, and so I went for it - luckily enough it turned out to be very smart advice!

Where did you train?

My undergraduate degree was in the Wolfson School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at Loughborough University. I took a year’s break from there to do an MSc in Rapid Product Development at De Montfort University, Leicester, before returning to Loughborough for my PhD and subsequent research positions. Four and a half years ago I made the massive(!) jump up the road to Sheffield for my first academic position.

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What are your research interests?

Additive Manufacturing (you may be more familiar with it as 3D Printing). During my final semester at University we had a two hour guest lecture about it, and I was instantly hooked. One of the things that fascinated me was the huge range of potential uses of these techniques (think of such varied applications as personalised medical devices, lightweight, more fuelefficient components for vehicles, bespoke jewellery, consumer products, or large-scale construction). That’s still what keeps me interested; it seems like every day there’s something new to think about.

What are you working on at the moment?

The majority of my work is aimed towards increasing the usefulness of 3D Printing technologies (specifically powder-based sintering) to meet this wider range of applications. In particular, the range of

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materials currently available for these processes is quite limited, preventing us from using them to their full potential.

Within our Advanced Polymer Sintering laboratory we work with a number of polymer material manufacturers to understand the science behind these processes, and to develop more, and better, materials. We also work with end-users of the technologies, to establish what their long-term needs are and make sure we’re working on the right things!

If there was one Mech Eng problem you could solve, what would it be?

If I had to pick one thing, it would actually be to keep improving the overall image of the subject. There’s a lot of work going on here at Sheffield to promote these subjects and show just how exciting and varied they can be, but we still have more to do to overcome some of the stereotypes associated with them. By encouraging

more people to consider careers in these areas we will increase the total number of engineers, meaning we can fix a lot more of the problems that are out there…

What words of advice would you give to your student-self about the future?

Make sure whatever you end up doing is something you love. Every job has its highs and lows, but being passionate about what you do helps you to deal with the bad bits and to really embrace the good bits. Much of the time it’s about going with your instinct and not ‘settling’ for something you’re less than excited about. I’m lucky enough to be really happy with where I am, so I’d want to make sure my younger self made the right decisions to get me here!

For more information on additive manufacturing visit: www.adamcentre.co.uk

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Jake takes the lead Each year students across the country compete in the Royal Academy of Engineering Advanced leadership awards to receive £5000 towards their professional development. opportunity to build on what I had learnt as part of SELA and open new doors for me.”

The programme aims to provide support for engineering undergraduates in UK universities who have the potential to become leaders in engineering and who are able to act as role models for future engineers. These awards help ambitious and inspiring engineering undergraduates, who want to become leadership role models for the next generation of engineers, to undertake an accelerated personal development programme.

With only 35 prizes available, competition is keen.

Students have to apply for the award themselves by writing a 500 word essay on why they should be chosen, as well as answering questions on how they would run a business. This year only 70 students made it through to the assessment day in London where they completed group exercises and individual interviews.

Jake Brown, a third year Mechanical Engineering student heard about the award through the Sheffield Engineering Leadership Academy (SELA) and was encouraged to apply. He says, “The award, for me, was the next stepping stone in my professional development. It gave me an

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Jake was one of the talented individuals whittled down into the 35 lucky leaders of the future who will walk away with £5000 to be used over three years towards career personal development activities. “I didn’t apply just for the money (although that will help) it was the prestigious nature of the award and to be associated with the Royal Academy of Engineers is a great thing to have on my CV.” he tells us. “I will look to use the money to gain work experience within different cultures, to gain new experience of what it takes to lead in different environments. I have a year in industry with Rolls-Royce next year which I will look to make the most of and take any opportunity to travel within the company. I will also look to take courses in project management and seek formal qualifications, whilst looking to build on the opportunities given to me by SELA and continue to develop my personal skills such as public speaking, negotiation, persuasion and networking. I am also planning on attending numerous conferences and events both in and out of the UK to get a wider sense of what engineering means on a global scale and to get my name out there and start developing a strong network of contacts.”

The REA award is also associated with the Sainsbury Management Fellows, a separate scheme that allows young engineers with leadership qualities to combine business and engineering education to improve the performance of the UK economy. Jake intends to use his award to allow him to gain business experience so he is in a good position to apply for this award when the time comes.

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Sheffield engineer takes research to Parliament Alistair John, a PhD student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering attended Parliament in March to present his research to a range of politicians and a panel of expert judges, as part of SET for Britain.

Alistair’s research is into the aerodynamic design of the rotating compressor blades that form the first section of a jet engine. The blade tip speeds can be in excess of 1000mph and complex conditions with supersonic flow features mean that they are very challenging to design. The blades must be capable of compressing the incoming air against the natural direction of flow while maximising aerodynamic efficiency to minimise losses and fuel burn.

His work investigates the use of a novel design shaping method to produce blades with increased efficiency. A 3D geometry design approach is used where the blade shape is controlled by a FreeForm-Deformation grid comprising of a series of points that can be moved to deform the geometry.

Advanced computational fluid dynamics simulation allows the assessment of hundreds of designs, and optimisation techniques are used to search for an optimal blade shape.

Alistair was shortlisted from hundreds of applicants to appear in Parliament and his poster was judged against dozens of scientists’ research in the only national competition of its kind.

“I was honoured to have the opportunity to promote my research to members of parliament and leading industrial figures,” says Alistair, “One of the aims of the event was to showcase the work of promising early-career researchers and raise awareness of the importance of investment in UK research. It felt good to be able to contribute to that.

“One of the main things I learnt was how to explain my work to people outside my field, who might not have a science based degree. I had to write the abstract, create the poster and explain my work in a way that anyone could understand.”

President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Professor Dame Ann Dowling OM DBE FREng FRS, said “Engineers make a difference in all our lives. They create solutions to the issues we face as individuals and as a society. SET for Britain provides a great opportunity for these innovators to connect with the decision makers in Parliament, to showcase the superb engineering research being carried out in the UK, and the new technologies that can help improve our lives and drive new growth in our industries. From new materials that ensure safe drinking water to novel uses of 3D printing for efficient energy storage, the research exhibited at SET for Britain provides a glimpse of the talent at work in the UK today.”

Stephen Metcalfe MP, Chairman of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee, said, “This annual competition is an important date in the parliamentary calendar because it gives MPs an opportunity to speak to a wide range of the country’s best young researchers.

“These early career engineers, mathematicians and scientists are the architects of our future and SET for Britain is politicians’ best opportunity to meet them and understand their work.”

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Where are they now?

Jenny Penn graduated in 2015 after studying her meng in mechanical engineering with french with us. She's now working as a graduate trainee with transport for london.

After graduating from Sheffield in 2015, Jenny secured a Mechanical Engineering Graduate Trainee position with Transport for London.

The graduate scheme lasts for two years and will enable Jenny to experience placements of three months each in different areas of the business. Graduates can choose their placements depending on their interests and can work in a wide range of business areas including track, rolling stock, lifts and escalators, ventilation and cooling, signalling and station upgrades.

“Engineering projects I’ve worked on so far include writing a plan to improve wheelchair and buggy access on the Central line, designing a new bracket for the underside of a train and safety

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testing a new type of train door edge rubbers.” says Jenny, “During my first few weeks at the company I also spent time working in a front-line role as a Customer Services Assistant at a busy underground station. This was very challenging, however it was a great opportunity to experience aspects of the business I would not normally see as an engineer and it helped me appreciate the impact our engineering activities can have.”

Jenny’s current placement is in a depot helping to oversee the introduction of brand new trains onto the District, Hammersmith and City, Circle and Metropolitan lines. The two main areas she’s involved in are investigating the root causes of mechanical failures on the new trains and

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reviewing maintenance documentation.

As with most engineering jobs, there isn’t really a typical day for Jenny. “Some days I am based in an office carrying out research, computer modelling, attending meetings or writing reports. Other days I am getting my hands dirty working in a depot or visiting one of our sites!

Jenny took advantage of the many summer placements on offer in order to get as much industry experience as possible, and her advice to future students is to do the same: “I would advise all students to try and gain as much work experience as they can while they are at university, for example by doing summer placements. Even if the jobs are not in the exact area you want to work in you will still gain useful skills and experience and it will give you lots to discuss when you are applying for graduate jobs.

I did summer placements in the manufacturing industry but the experience I gained definitely helped me get hired for my current job.”

Jenny would also encourage engineering students to consider a career in rail. “I love working in this industry and it is currently undergoing lots of change and investment so there are many great opportunities for engineers.”

“My favourite moment of my career so far has been a track walk that TfL organised for new graduates. We got to walk down two kilometres of underground tunnels in the middle of the night when the trains do not run. It was fascinating to see things from a totally different perspective and I learnt a lot about trackside equipment and nightly maintenance. Since being on the scheme I have also done many other cool things including visiting disused underground stations and having a go at driving a train!”

Jenny has another year left on her graduate scheme, and plans to stay on with TfL after its completion. She says “After I have finished the graduate scheme in a year’s time I hope to start working in one of the rolling stock teams at Transport for London who design and deliver improvements to London Underground trains.

I am also working towards becoming a chartered member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. This requires you to demonstrate a high level of achievement in a range of competencies and it typically takes 4-5 years after graduating to achieve.”

Whilst studying at the University of Sheffield,

Sheffield students to compete to build best locomotive in IMechE Railway Challenge If Jenny’s story has piqued your interest, you may like to watch 20 of our students compete in the annual IMechE Railway Challenge that is set to take place in July at Stapleford Miniature Railway. The competition will see eight teams compete against each other to design and manufacture the best, most innovative, efficient and quietest small-scale locomotive.

David Roebuck, a 3rd year student from the Department said: “The experience will be invaluable to the whole team in our future careers and we are looking forward to putting all our hard work to the test at the competition in July.”

For more information about the Railway Challenge: imeche.org//RailwayChallenge

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Mech Eng is Reaching Out Although STEM subjects have a huge impact on our everyday lives, there is still a huge lack of engagement from students of all ages, despite STEM subjects being considered one of the driving forces for future economic growth. The Department of Mechanical Engineering has been linking up with events around the city to promote engineering and engage with young people.

SFR team members, Jonathon Atkinson, Alex Dunnett, Jeanette Ekuban and Jessica Batty at the Exploring STEM for Girls Event 2016

it takes GUTS

By Jess Batty, SFR Bodywork Team Leader

As well as the design, manufacture and testing of our car, ready to compete at the Formula Student UK competition in July 2016 at Silverstone, the team also takes part in other events, exhibiting at fairs both inside and outside of university, speaking to prospective undergraduates on their UCAS visit days and working with local primary schools to promote engineering subjects.

Recently we exhibited at the Exploring STEM for Girls Event, which was held in the Octagon Centre.

Here, we spoke to female students in KS3 about

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the opportunities available for them in STEM subjects, and particularly what Formula Student is and what we do as a team. Many students were interested in motorsport, having watched high profile sports such as Formula 1, and so were excited about the opportunity to take part in an extra-curricular activity such as Formula Student alongside their studies at university. We answered lots of questions about subject choices in order to do a degree in engineering, what a degree in engineering is like and the career opportunities available. A lot of the girls were also pretty keen to have a seat in the car and see how it looks from the driver’s point of view, with many being surprised at how limited the driver’s view of the road actually is! We hope that at this event we managed to inspire some students to take STEM subjects at A-Level and degree level and pursue a career in engineering!

Another event we recently attended was the Get Up To Speed (GUTS) event held at Magna in April.

A wide range of exhibitors attended this event, including companies such as Rolls-Royce, the AMRC and TATA Steel, as well as the Bloodhound Car being on display. The event was attended by predominantly school children, who were eager to take a seat in SFR6 and to ask questions about the car. Exhibiting at events such as these allows us to show the work that we do in our free time to prospective students and the public, enthusing them about engineering and how it integrates into society, whilst hopefully inspiring students to venture into engineering.

We are also working with Wentworth Primary School in Rotherham this semester where the

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year 4 class are doing a project building small motor powered cars. The team has loaned out parts of previous years’ cars and pictures of Sheffield Formula Racing (SFR) cars for the classroom display.

Team members will also be visiting the school in a few weeks’ time to judge the competition and help choose the winning car. Year 4 teacher Peter Cotton said that “The children have loved the racing theme and the support from Sheffield Formula Racing has inspired all the children and made them excited about engineering.” We hope that by working with the primary school we have encouraged the children to take STEM subjects in their further education.

Exploring STEM Staff and students from around the Department took part in the Exploring STEM event in April, aimed at female pupils aged 13-16 and attended by 600 students from local schools. Diyana Tasron, 4th year PhD student, was one of those involved in the event.

Diyana and her team demonstrated the importance of friction and grip strength in sports, how skin friction was measured in a laboratory setting and how biofidelic models were developed.

SCIENCE WEEK Dr Ben Hughes from the Energy Group spent a day at Ashdell Preparatory School for girls during science week. Ben was invited, along with several other parents working in STEM, to talk to the children about how their careers fit into the wider world.

Ben carried out a series of experiments with the girls to demonstrate the use of energy. First they used tap water and raisins, then swapped the water for carbonated water and the bubbles attached to the raisins before lifting them to the surface, when they popped the raisins fell back down again, and the cycle continued, so it was about the influence of transferring energy from one source to another. Then they discussed swapping water for air, and how aeroplanes used the same transfer of air bubbles to lift the aircraft. So then they made paper airplanes and threw them around. Any excuse, Ben! Another class built rubber-band racers to carry an egg, another designed and built bridges for the cars to travel on and another began work on a pair of ‘Lightning Racers’ cars big enough for Pre Prep to ride in.

“As the father of two girls, it’s important to me that they, and girls like them, are aware of all the opportunities and career options available to them.” says Ben. “To do this, we need to break the misconceptions about engineering being a boys’ world full of greasy mechanics to show girls that there is a place here in engineering for them, too.”

“Mechanical engineering is still more heavily male-dominated than nearly all other engineering disciplines because of the perception that they have to deal with engines, heavy machinery, automotives, oil and gas etc.” says Diyana. “A vast majority of the students were not aware of various bio-related modules and projects offered as part of mechanical engineering (e.g.

Biomechanics and Biotribology). So, the demonstrations we prepared for them that day were focused on this theme.”

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Bend it like Bin With increasing global competition, manufacturers must develop core competence of advanced manufacturing technologies.

Dr Bin Lu is an international incoming fellow, from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, working in the Department of Mechanical Engineering on FLEXFORM, an EU FP7 Marie Curie project to develop flexible sheet forming technologies. The EU Marie Curie Actions International Fellowship Scheme supports researchers, like Bin, at all stages of their careers, irrespective of nationality, working across all disciplines in European institutions to enhance their employability and career development.

Flexible sheet forming technologies enable rapid manufacturing of sheet products by controlling the movement of a simple forming tool; a flat sheet workpiece is plastically deformed gradually by moving a stylus-type tool along its defined tool paths to produce the desired geometry of a product. The process does not require special equipment and forming tools, thus, reducing manufacturing costs and production lead-time.

The technologies are particularly useful for small batch and customised applications, such as medical, aerospace and automotive prototypes.

However, the current challenges are to improve product precision and surface quality, especially for applications using hard-to-deform metals.

efficiency: it only takes a short time from a few minutes to a few hours to manufacture simple and complex parts of various geometries.

The project has developed a new concept of hybrid flexible sheet forming, combining two flexible sheet forming processes, spinning and incremental forming, to tackle the challenges of flexible sheet forming technologies. A bespoke prototype machine of hybrid spinning and incremental forming has been designed and manufactured, currently being tested to evaluate its capabilities to produce sheet parts with improved geometrical accuracy and surface finishing.

The successful development of the flexible sheet forming technologies will directly impact on manufacturing small batch and customised products; they no longer need to be made in the conventional way of large-scale manufacturing.

Potentially, the technologies are suitable for high-value added products in the UK and Europe manufacturing industry to compete with other countries who are at an advantage for large scale manufacturing because of their low labour costs.

There are many methods to manufacture a customized product: by material removal (milling), material addition (3D printing), and material shaping. This project focuses on material shaping by permanently deforming the workpiece into desired geometries. Compared to the material removal approach, flexible sheet forming does not waste materials, nor does it require very high temperatures to melt materials together, unlike the material addition approach, therefore making it more energy efficient. Another advantage of this method is its production

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MechEngNews

Shell eco-marathon Shell Eco-marathon challenges student teams around the world to design, build, test and drive ultra-energy-efficient vehicles.

Shell Eco-marathon is a unique competition that challenges students around the world to design, build and drive the most energy-efficient car. With three annual events in Asia, Americas and Europe, student teams take to the track to see who goes further on the least amount of fuel.

The competition dates back to 1939 when Shell Oil Company employees in the USA made a friendly wager over who could travel furthest on the same amount of fuel. Since then it has expanded to two more continents, includes many energy types and sparks passionate debate around the future of energy and mobility.

For the first year ever, we have got a team together to design and build an electric battery powered car which will be entered into next year’s competition. The team, Sheffield Eco Motorsports, is open to all engineering departments and they are currently represented by students from mechanical, civil, aerospace, ACSE and EEE. Head of team marketing, David Scott says, “We are excitingly far through the design process now and everything is coming together nicely. Much of the design has been completed and we will commence with prototyping, testing and building at the start of next year. The shape of the car is undergoing only small modifications and we are now talking with the AMRC about building a carbon fibre

structural monocoque. We are also using facilities within the university to design and build our own electric motor.”

Professor Rob Dwyer-Joyce is the academic advisor for the team and is excited to see what the team come up with: “It is great to see the EcoMarathon team working with such enthusiasm and the spirit of teamwork and camaraderie. The group is a mix of students from across the faculty and all bring different skills. This is an excellent way for the students to bring the material they have studied in their degree courses to life. There is no better way to learn than by solving the real problems that arise when designing a competition ready car. Good luck to the SEM team.”

If staff or students would like to get involved in the competition, they should contact the team at sem@sheffield.ac.uk or visit www.SheffieldE.com

Cars lined up ready to compete in last year’s race.

Images courtesy of Shell.com

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Research focus: tribo-accoustic sensors The Leonardo Centre for Tribology has been working on an EPSRC research fellowship to conceive, develop and apply a new generation of triboaccoustic sensors for machine elements. The fellowship further seeks to expand the Leonardo Centre’s science base, and its sphere of activity across a wider range of industry sectors and engineering challenges. lubricant. Sensors that measure performance rather than failure, and so can be used to optimise operating parameters would be much more useful. This also opens the possibility of using advanced control based on sensor readings.

Many machine components are commodities, and integrating sensors provides a way to add value to what would otherwise be a commodity product.

Engineering machines, from cars and planes, to power stations and production lines, have lots of moving parts. The reliability of these parts is key to the function and energy efficiency of the machine. It is often these moving parts that fail and frequently that failure is associated with the rubbing surfaces. Machine elements like bearings, gears, seals, and pistons often wear out, exhibit high friction, or seize.

Knowing if a machine element is performing at its optimum can save energy and lead to longer life.

Being able to monitor the components in-situ in a machine can speed up the development cycle time. Further, monitoring performance rather than failure, allows the machine operator to plan maintenance. This is particularly important for high capital cost machines, in remote locations, like offshore wind turbines.

Current monitoring methods are based around measuring excessive vibration or the noise emitted by a failed component (acoustic emission AE) or by counting wear debris particles in a

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The Leonardo Centre at Sheffield has developed unique methods for measuring machine contacts in-situ. The approaches are based on ultrasonic technologies adapted from the NDT and dynamics communities. By sending ultrasonic pulses through machine components and measuring transmission and reflection they have been able to non-invasively study various tribological machine components. In early work they developed methods to measure the oil film thickness, and the amount of metal contact. This has been well established, validated in laboratory experiments, and applied to journal bearings, thrust pads, rolling bearings, pistons, and seals.

Several industrial companies have adopted these approaches in their product development cycles.

This fellowship seeks to explore new methods to learn more about contacts. By using different kinds of ultrasonic waves, transducer topologies, and signal processing the Centre will develop methods to measure contact load, stress history, oil viscosity and friction. These will be prototyped in the laboratory and industrial partners are ready to provide field applications. In addition, the fellowship seeks to collaborate with academic institutions; firstly to learn new acoustic sensor techniques and secondly to support research

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Research funding received into machine element research with the provision of new measurement methods.

number of funded research projects:

This will support the Leonardo Centre aim to be not only the leading centre for ultrasonic measurement in tribology, but to be a key part of the UK’s research infrastructure in machine component research and development both in industry and academia.

This research will benefit machine element manufacturers and major equipment suppliers, owners and operators, potentially across all industrial sectors; but principally high value products where sensor installation is cost effective, for example offshore wind, power generation, offshore oil and gas, and aerospace.

Many machine components are commodity products. One way to add value to the component is through embedded technology. This might be in terms of component design features, or by using advanced materials. Alternatively it can be through the use of on-board monitoring and feedback.

The project could result in the availability of lower cost energy and reduced greenhouse gas emissions through the more efficient use of natural resources. A well-designed machine element operating at its optimum point is smaller, lighter, lasts longer, and consumes less energy.

In-situ sensing enables that design and operating optimisation.

This project, led by Professor Rob Dwyer-Joyce in the Leonardo Centre, has been funded by EPSRC with a grant of £1,293,358.

EPSRC (5) £2,594,815

Industry (5) 201,364

Inn

Charity (5) £141,923

ova t £70 e UK ( 1) ,40 2

£2,886,384 our top 5 research grants this quarter: Prof. Rob Dwyer-Joyce - Performance and inspection of machine elements (Established Career Fellowship) - £1,293,358 from EPSRC. Prof. Mohamed Pourkashanian, Dr Bill Nimmo Biomethanisation of CO2 in anaerobic digestion plants - £490, 440 from EPSRC. Prof. Mohamed Pourkashanian - Future Conventional Power Gen Consortium - £368,345 from EPSRC. Prof. Rob Dwyer-Joyce, Dr Matt Marshall - OWDIn 2 Multilife testing, field function, data processing £100,000 from Ricardo UK Ltd. Dr Anton Krynkin - Development of a non-invasive airborne accoustic technique to monitor the dynamics of water systems - £99,216 from EPSRC.

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PhD Poster Competition Each year the Department holds a competition for all PhD students to present their research to their peers and academic colleagues from the Department.

This year the competition took place in Mappin Hall, probably for the last time for a few years as we move into the construction phase of the new Heart Space development. 36 students who are mid way through their PhD projects presented posters on aspects of their research from studies of the wear of muscles while wearing high heels, through to heat conduction through tubes. The event was attended by academic supervisors and fellow students who voted on those posters they felt best conveyed information about the student’s research.

And finally, Giuliano Lamberto from the Insigneo Institute, supervised by Dr Claudia Mazza, was voted in to third place with his research on soft tissue artefact effects on the estimates of muscle and joint forces.

Out of a field with some tough competition three clear winners emerged: In first place was Alistair John, supervised by Professor Ning Qin, with his research on Novel Shaping of Jet Engine Compressor Blades which was covered on page 7 this month.

Hamza Al-Tameemi, supervised by Dr Hui Long, came in at second place with his research on Experimental and FE Modelling of Wind Turbine Bearing Subsurface Initiated Damage. Hamza is seen below (in blue) discussing his research with another student.

Stephen Chase is the Research Support Officer in the Department and organiser of this event. “The competition gives students the opportunity for developing their professional practice skills and gives them experience in defending and explaining their work in a public arena. As always, the quality of the work presented was impressive and I’m sure the academic team will join me in saying a big well done to all those involved.

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Designed to win The IMechE Design Challenge Competition gives undergraduates a taste of the ‘real world’ of engineering by setting them a challenge to design and create a device to a strict technical specification. The challenge is open to teams of up to five students in the first year of an engineering course at university and aims to give practical experience to complement their theoretical knowledge and give them an edge in the jobs’ market.

This year is the first time the competition has been open to students in Yorkshire and the event was hosted in our very own labs here in Sheffield.

Dr James Meredith organised the event, “This is a great competition using all of the skills learnt in 1st year design to come up with a solution to an industrially relevant problem. Students compete with other universities for a cash prize and the prestige of having their name on the IMechE Challenge cup.”

This year’s challenge was to design a line launcher, a device used to fire a rope from one ship to another at sea or for water rescue, The challenge was for teams to design, build and test a smallscale indoor device to fire a squash ball attached to a line over a distance up to 6m. Devices were assessed on distance and target accuracy.

Sheffield’s team won the poster competition with a prize of £600 shared between our team of four.

Team member Abhinav Kongari said, “The design challenge pushed us beyond our academic knowledge, led us to further research on several new concepts and allowed us to implement all those ideas practically. The main purpose of the challenge was to increase scientific temperament through a healthy competition and I believe all those aspects were fulfilled.

Louis Registe commented, “We were in full control of our ideas, which I think made me appreciate the amount of thought that goes into engineering a product to someone else’s demand. It was a great relief putting all of our hard work into a couple of hours presenting.”

Jessica Chen agrees, “It definitely expanded our creativity and knowledge in engineering. Working with my team was one of the most enjoyable parts of the competition for me. Despite having to overcome many different issues that came with our different ideas, we pushed boundaries and gave each other lots of support and through this, we came up with a brilliant final solution for the task.

The team all agreed that it was a great experience. “I can’t wait for the next year so I can sign myself in for another challenge like this.” says Abdullah Zeb.

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Read all about it!

News from around the Department Dr Rachel Tomlinson and Dr Matt Carre (pictured) swam the distance as a tag team and raised £1387 for their efforts.

Dr Claudia Mazza and her research team each swam 1km in the race, raking in a further £576.

Our finance team also contributed by coming to work dressed in their best sporting gear to raise another £70.

What a relief, they made it!

We had two teams this year swimming 5km in aid of Sports Relief, raising money to help transform people’s lives across the UK and the world’s poorest communities living unimaginably tough lives.

You can still donate at: http://my.sportrelief.com/sponsor/ teammattcarre and http://my.sportrelief.com/sponsor/shellsmussels-and-bownes

Master of Education Tim Haycock, site manager at the Low Carbon Combustion Centre (LCCC) recently received his masters in Education-Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. Well done Tim! Dr Bhupendra Khandelwal, also at LCCC, and Dr Anton Krynkin, a lecturer in the Dynamic Research Group were both listed as Higher Education Academy Fellows in March. Previously listed fellows include Elena Rodriguez-Falcon (Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy), Alberto Marzo, Claudia Mazza, Hassan Ghadbeigi, Inna Gitman, Kamran Mumtaz, Patrick Smith, Rob Barthorpe, Tim Haycock and Zeike Taylor.

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New specialist training Airbus UK have partnered with the Low Carbon Combustion Centre in Mechanical Engineering to develop a new bespoke course for engineers, strategists and business leaders involved with the research and approval of new synthetic aviation fuels.

The pilot course in April saw over 25 participants from across the aerospace industry undertake a week-long blended learning solution with a mix of lectures, workshops and practical labs based in the Diamond and the LCCC research facilities; with learning led by a mix of academic and industrial experts.

This development effort is funded through Airbus UK by the Department of Business, Innovation & Skills as part of the Employer Ownership of Skills Programme. The success of the course is reinforced by its sustainability with the next course already planned in 2017 and interest served from a range of manufacturers and authorities.

Coupled with this are plans to incorporate the course into the final year MEng and postgraduate teaching catalogue to ensure the next generation of engineers join the industry with in demand cutting-edge capability. In a rapidly growing market throughout the world the new course will ensure the UK retains its important position in fuel system and engine design, test method development and fuel specification management.

“It’s been fantastic to be able to mould the outcomes of our research into a teaching tool and to develop a network amongst the up and coming professionals in the sector”, said Simon Blakey “the exciting thing is that it is already pushing us on to new collaborations and research ideas which would have taken much longer to germinate without this development time.”

Insigneo Showcase A record number of 218 visitors who attended this year’s Insigneo Showcase in May heard how in silico medicine – computer simulations of the human body and its disease processes – can help improve diagnosis and prognosis for conditions like Parkinson’s and pulmonary vascular disease. Although ultimately destined for the clinic, the technology looks likely to move quickly into use within clinical trials, as it can enable more effective monitoring of the

impact of new drugs and treatments.

Marco Viceconti, Executive Director at the Insigneo Institute said: “At the Insigneo Institute, our work aims to use the speed and accuracy of digital modelling to bring substantial benefits, both to clinical care and clinical trials. In the future, such detailed digital models of diseases and the structure of organs could be used to help diagnose conditions, understand the impact of surgical interventions and even run digital drug trials. The presentations and debates at this year’s Insigneo Showcase show how both research and industry are moving closer towards this goal.”

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The Final Word.

The June issue is always a busy one, and once again, there hasn’t been room on these pages to talk about all of the wonderful things you are all doing.

As seems to be the trend, we’ve had a number of students being shortlisted for, and winning, awards over the last quarter - with a leader of the future in our midst and another taking his research to Parliament, we are immensely proud of the people we teach.

With exams approaching, we wish good luck to all of our students. We also say a fond farewell to those who will be graduating this summer - we’ve loved watching you grow over the years and develop into competent engineers who are bound for great things. Thank you for choosing to study with us; teaching you has been our pleasure.

There will be some changes over the summer months with the decant out of Mappin and into Portobello and Velocity but we’ll all be settled in to our new homes by the time everyone returns in September, ready to begin another exciting new chapter in our Departmental history!

Have a fantastic summer, stay safe, and we’ll see you back here in a couple of months!

Neil Sims

Head of Department, Mechanical Engineering

This publication is produced using 100% recycled FSC certified paper

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