Research

This part of the site has nothing to do with the challenge, but is a place for me to use as part of my renewable energy research at the University of Sheffield. As time goes on, I will post updates and downloads here.

I am very grateful to the University of Sheffield, EPSRC and Research Councils UK for my funding.

For research related stuff I'm on s.r.walker <at> sheffield.ac.uk

27th April 2012:

My "Barriers to the deployment of a 100MW tidal array in the UK" paper has been accepted by the International Journal of Energy Engineering, so I look forward to that being published!

I've also been working with another E-Futures student, David Anderson, on his work on micro hydroelectric schemes in the Peak district. We went out to Alport in the Peak and spent a day studying the flow at various points in the river.

Slightly tangentially, I've also built a rocket stove! I'm very pleased with it and it works pretty well, boiling a full kettle of water in about 10 minutes using just a few sticks.

1st March 2012:

I am now working on characterising the flow through the flume, in order to understand the boundary layer profile and work out where in the flow I should position my models. I now have a scale model of a tidal turbine which I will be using to test the flume. It looks fantastic and I can't wait to get it in the water and spinning!

Myself and a few other PhD students are undertaking an intensive turbulence course, and I have spent the last few weeks absorbed in Kolmogorov scales and other such joys...

I've also submitted my "Barriers to the deployment of a 100MW tidal array in the UK" paper to a journal, and hope to hear from them shortly.

12th December 2011:

The flume is working! I will be using this to run some scale models of tidal turbines. At the moment I'm setting up an ADV system to measure the fluid velocity, then will start work on some scale models...

I may not have chance to write anything until next year now, so Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

4th December 2011:

Not much to say about recent work, although some very exciting developments have been taking place. Hopefully more on these in the future!

I am enjoying working on two seperate papers, one based on the RenewableUK event, and a literature review paper on my current area of work. Following the event in Manchester my work has refocussed slightly, and I will be concentrating on the use of a water flume to model the performance of turbine arrays. Again, more on this to come!

October 2011:

I am now conducting a detailed literature review, and starting to run some CFD models to test software prior to starting my real experiments. I am also hoping to attend a seminar on the future of UK tidal power, as part of the RenewableUK conference which is taking place in Manchester on Wednesday.

"Yes, we still have a lot to learn about climate change.
That said, we still have a lot to learn about gravity, but you wouldn't jump off a skyscraper"

September 2011:

A quick update - my PhD title has been finalised. "Optimising the spatial layout of a farm of tidal turbines". I'm looking forward to starting on 2nd October. My supervisors will be Dr. Robert Howell (Mechanical Engineering) and Dr. Wernher Brevis (Civil Engineering)

I've also recieved confirmation that my paper will be published in the November issue of the IMechE journal Engineering for the Maritime Environment.

July 2011:

I have now finished my third and final two month mini-project. This is basically the end of year one of the E-Futures course, and I will be starting my PhD proper in October. My final projec this year was on the use of Hydrogen as a fuel source, focusing particularly on the potential to add up to 20% to the EU natural gas supply, and the safety implications of doing so.

The work involved using a very cool flame tube rig, and firing flames down a glass tube filled with hydrogen and propane gas mixtures. Using high-res video we recorded these experiments and were able to ascertain the flame velocity. No published paper from this one but there is a report if anyone wants to read it.