Aeronautical, Mechanical, Chemical and Manufacturing Engineering (UoA 12)
Almost all of the research in this UoA is officially classified as world-leading or internationally excellent in terms of originality, significance and rigour.
The following academic units formed the submission to UoA 12:
School of Chemical Engineering and Advanced Materials
School of Mechanical and Systems Engineering
School of Marine Science and Technology
Following a reorganisation in 2017, the units are now part of the School of Engineering
Within the academic units there are nine research areas. You can find out more about our staff and projects in each area:
advanced materials
bioengineering
design, manufacture and materials
electrochemical engineering science
marine technology
MEMS and sensors
fluid dynamics and thermal systems
process intensification and catalysis
process modelling and optimisation
The following case studies demonstrate the impact of our research:
Reliable engineering standards for the manufacture of gears are critical to industry as they ensure the development of products that will operate safely and reliably and are often mandatory within supply contracts. It is essential that standards evolve with time in order to provide continual improvement of performance and to take advantage of technological developments.
Newcastle University gear research in the fields of geometry measurement and calibration, material strength and cleanliness, stress analysis for gear tooth bending, macro pitting and micro pitting performance has contributed to the revision of a number of BS (British Standards), ISO (International Standard Organisation) and DefStan (Defence Standards) publications.
These affect wide ranging applications including automotive, power generation, wind turbine, agricultural, defence, craneage, offshore, marine, mining, domestic appliance and industrial drive applications worldwide in an industry the gear supply component if worth in excess of £200m annually to the UK economy.
The results of the research have influenced the manufacturing procedures and crashworthiness performance of aluminium rail vehicles through the incorporation of the findings into two European standards. These standards are now implemented for all aluminium vehicles manufactured or sold in the European market, vastly enhancing rail transport safety.
The project was developed in response to the recommendations of the Cullen Inquiry into the Ladbroke Grove rail accident. The aim was to eliminate the fast brittle failure of welds (weld unzipping) that occurred during the collision, resulting in greater than anticipated passenger fatalities and injuries.
A legacy of the North Sea Piper Alpha disaster was the implementation of stringent fire safety procedures.
Welding repairs (ie hot work) offshore are avoided, due to the risk of fire and explosion.
Direct replacement of corroded pipelines, on the other hand, involves plant shut-down, with lost production penalties. The Newcastle University research provided an essential engineering model that formed the basis for implementation of a new repair technology, using fibre reinforced polymer wraps to restore the integrity of pipes without ‘hot work’ or interruption of production, thus minimising operational costs.
A direct consequence of this research was the introduction of ISO and ASME standards for pipeline repair. The period, 2008-2013, has seen considerable expansion, worldwide, of an industry offering the support services to enable composite repairs to be designed and made.
The development of an experimentally fully validated calculation procedure for designing high reliability low noise gears (GATES – Gear Analysis for Transmission Error and Stress) was fully funded by the MOD Navy.
It was first applied in the design of the gearing for the Astute class submarine, resulting in a very significant reduction in gear noise compared to previous boats, thus increasing capability and improving national security. GATES has also been widely used to simulate the 'in–service' stressing of failed gears to find economic and practical modifications to solve these problems. It is now being used for the design of gearing for the 'Successor' boat which will supersede the current Trident ballistic missile submarines.
From 2006 onwards high failure rate of metal-on-metal hip implants led to worldwide concern.
Collaborative research between Newcastle University and University Hospital of North Tees identified design features that are considered to have contributed to the failure. The research helped to inform policy makers both nationally (the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, MHRA), and internationally (such as the US Food and Drug Administration, FDA).
The final outcome was a worldwide withdrawal of one design of implant (the DePuy ASR) and a ban in several countries of a set of implants sharing common features (large head metal-on-metal total hip replacements). These policy changes reduce the risk of harm to patients who will now receive products with a significantly lower failure rate, and will have financial implications for implant manufacturers and healthcare providers.