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Nuclear fission is currently internationally recognised as a key low carbon energy source, vital in the fight against global warming, which has stimulated much interest and recent investment. For example, RCUK's energy programme has identified nuclear fission as an essential part of the "trinity" of future fuel options for the UK, alongside renewables and clean coal. However, nuclear energy is controversial, with heartfelt opinion both for and against, and there is a real requirement to make it cleaner and greener. Large international programmes of work are needed to deliver safe, reliable, economic and sustainable nuclear energy on the scale required in both the short and long term, through Gen III+ & Gen IV reactor systems. A pressing worldwide need is the development of specific spent fuel reprocessing technology suitable for these new reactors (as well as for dealing with legacy waste fuel from old reactors). The REFINE programme will assemble a multidisciplinary team across five partner universities and NNL, the UK's national nuclear laboratory to address this fuel reprocessing issue. The consortium will carry out a materials research programme to deliver fuel reprocessing by developing materials electrosynthesis through direct oxide reduction and selective electrodissolution and electroplating from molten salt systems. Developing, optimising and controlling these processes will provide methods for, and a fundamental understanding of, how best to reprocess nuclear fuel. This is in addition to the development of techniques for new molten salt systems, new sensing and analysis technologies and the establishment of the kinetics and mechanisms by which molten salt processes occur. This will facilitate rapid process development and optimization, as well as the generation of applications in related areas. A key output of the programme will be the training and development of the multidisciplinary UK researchers required to make possible clean nuclear energy and generate complementary scientific and technological breakthroughs.

Tripoded sponson turbines may be used with various types of pontoon(and vica versa).

Offshore infrastructure is currently undertaking a leading role in the development of energy production systems. A key factor in this infrastructure refers to the continuously loaded cables, pipelines foundations and anchoring systems throughout their design life-time. Emphasising on the foundation of offshore wind turbine systems, large diameter piled foundation still seem to be the preferable solution. It is remarkable that 74.5% of the installed offshore wind turbines in 2018 are supported by monopiles, while the cost of this system is approximately 30% of the total. Up-to-date geotechnical engineering research efforts focusing on the following aspects: a) pile-soil interaction emphasising on the fundamental frequency of the system, b) soil damping, c) scour and evolution of pore-pressures, and d) long-term performance of the foundation. The aim of this thesis is to cover the latter aspect of this engineering problem, specifically, the long-term response analysis of large piled foundations. Looking now at the state-of-practice techniques, the well-known p-y curve method seems to underestimate the capacity of monopiles, as it has been illustrated by relatively recent research studies. This is because these methodologies are derived for smaller diameter piles which higher L/D ratios. Advanced Finite Element Analyses can be used to improve the existing p-y curves, as many aspects of this problem can be captured. In addition, the accumulation of displacements and the conditions which lead to a stable, meta-stable or unstable long-term response can be investigated. Large diameter piles with relatively small aspects ratios (L/D) are well-known as "rigid" or "short" piles. In such systems, the soil properties are of a great importance for the resultant response. However, these properties continuously alternate with the number of the applied cycles of loads resulting in the deterioration of the performance of the piled foundation. Prior to this effect, during the installation of the large piled foundations, the properties of the soil mass are disrupted, leading to densified or loosened zones. It is well-established from past research that the rate of degradation of cohesionless materials with different relative density is different. Therefore, this is a key aspect that needs to be considered in the simulation of the cyclic response of monopiles. For the purpose of analysing the cyclic response of the piled foundations considering the installation effects, two different models need to be developed with two different appropriate constitutive laws. The first one will be a model suitable to capture the high stress conditions and the changes in the voids ratio during installation, while the second model captures the long-term performance and degradation of sands. In this way, the rigorous computation of the cyclic response of piled foundations will be carried out.

There are two types of wind turbines, a Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT) and a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT). A HAWT has high efficiencies, but also high costs of materials, transportation, installation and maintenance. A VAWT has low efficiency, but lower costs of materials, transportation, installation and maintenance. In comparison, a VAWT also offers a subtler design with reduced shadow flicker, bird strike, and noise. However, due to the low efficiency of a VAWT, it is not an economically commercial method of producing renewable energy. AB Power has developed a technology to increase the efficiency of a VAWT close to that of a HAWT without sacrificing the cost savings. This has led to a far cheaper method of harnessing energy from the wind than ever before. Due to the affordability of the VAWT, it will have a dramatic impact on the fight against climate change. The technology being developed at AB Power will make renewable energy available to more customers than ever before. Through the growth of AB Power, there will be a direct relationship with the reduction of UK emissions.

Production of a prototype internal blade inspection system for use inside Offshore Wind Turbine blades including a cost benefit analysis.

No abstract available.

The energy systems in both the UK and China face challenges of unprecedented proportions. In the UK, it is expected that the amount of electricity demand met by renewable generation in 2020 will be increased by an order of magnitude from the present levels. In the context of the targets proposed by the UK Climate Change Committee it is expected that the electricity sector would be almost entirely decarbonised by 2030 with significantly increased levels of electricity production and demand driven by electrification of heat and transport. In China, the government has promised to cut greenhouse gas emission per unit of gross domestic product by 40-45% by 2020 based on the 2005 level. This represents a significant challenge given that over 70% of its electricity is currently generated by coal-fired power plants. Energy storage has the potential to provide a solution towards these challenges. Numerous energy storage technologies exist currently, including electrochemical (batteries, flow batteries and sodium sulphate batteries etc), mechanical (compressed air and pumped hydro etc), thermal (heat and cold), and electrical (supercapacitors). Among these storage technologies, thermal energy storage (TES) provides a unique approach for efficient and effective peak-shaving of electricity and heat demand, efficient use of low grade waste heat and renewable energy, low-cost high efficiency carbon capture, and distributed energy and backup energy systems. Despite the importance and huge potential, little has been done in the UK and China on TES for grid scale applications. This forms the main motivation for the proposed research. This proposed research aims to address, in an integrated manner, key scientific and technological challenges associated with TES for grid scale applications, covering TES materials, TES components, TES devices and integration. The specific objectives are: (i) to develop novel TES materials, components and devices; (ii) to understand relationships between TES material properties and TES component behaviour, and TES component behaviour and TES device performance; (iii) to understand relationship between TES component behaviour and manufacturing process parameters, and (iv) to investigate integration of TES devices with large scale CAES system, decentralized microgrid system, and solar thermal power generation system. We bring together a multidisciplinary team of internationally leading thermal, chemical, electrical and mechanical engineers, and chemical and materials scientists with strong track records and complementary expertise needed for comprehensively addressing the TES challenges. This dynamic team comprises 15 leading academics from 4 universities (Beijing University of Technology, University of Leeds, University of Nottingham and University of Warwick, and 2 Chinese Academy of Sciences Research Institutes (Institute of Engineering Thermophysics and Institute of Process Engineering), and 7 industrial partners.

1st year is the PG Diploma and research and Industry preparation Years 2-4 are a PhD at one of the CDT universities

This concept adds storage to a Concentrating Solar Power Dish System in a novel and modular way by direct illumination of the thermal store using an off-axis parabolic reflector. This proposal is for Academic/Academic Knowledge Exchange from the Astronomy domain to the Energy domain. Background There is an enormous (20PWh p.a.) market globally for electricity generation Climate change concerns and increasing oil prices have lead to a rapid increase in the demand for renewable energy, including solar. This technology has several novel features and the proposed project will explore the configuration necessary for these features to confer the greatest competitive advantage. The thermal generation of electricity by concentration of solar radiation is a highly efficient method of power generation but is obviously limited to daylight hours. This concept, with an appropriate configuration, has the potential to beat the competition in several power generation application areas, especially off-grid. Thermal (as opposed to photovoltaic) generation of electricity by concentration of solar radiation has three configurations that are in use or being developed: * Heliostat * Parabolic Troughs: * Dish Collector with a Stirling Engine Thus far a configuration has not been designed which achieves the high concentration ratios and operating temperatures of a dish system in combination with an energy store so that electricity can be produced according to demand rather than simply during daylight hours. Drawing on their extensive experience of optical, thermal and systems engineering the UK Astronomy Technology Centre (UKATC) have developed this concept, which adds storage to a dish system in a novel and modular way by using direct illumination of the thermal store using an off-axis parabolic reflector. Uniquely, this removes the need for pipe work and heat transfer fluids in a trough system while retaining the high concentration ratio of a dish system; thus taking advantage of the positive aspects of two existing technologies. Technical Concept The proposed approach is to cut out the middleman (heat transfer fluids & heat exchangers) by directly illuminating a thermal store thus increasing overall system efficiency. This is done with an off-axis fixed focus reflector inspired by astronomical off-axis systems such as the Bell Labs Horn Antenna which was used to discover the microwave background. The reflector and storage co-rotate on an azimuth track while the reflector follows the sun in elevation throughout each day.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.