Sustainable Design Research Themes
Research themes conducted by the members of the centre includes:
Tribology and Environmental Design
Design for Whole Life Cycle managed Programme titled "Sustainable Development of Mechanical Systems using replacement environmental acceptable refrigerants" (£110,000 EPSRC plus £8,000 in kind from BP Castrol Technology Centre) was completed in this area of research.
This research theme further developed by another EPSRC funded studentship (£45K). under the supervision of Professor Hadfield with BP Castrol and Plint and Partners as industrial collaborators.
EPSRC currently funds two industrial CASE projects, "Sustainable design of lifeboat launching systems", (£65K) and "Tribology Tests Using Oil Condition Monitoring Techniques" (£130,704K + 4K) under the supervision of Professor Hadfield with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. This research is looking to identify a non-invasive condition monitoring approach that is suitable for the RNLI mode of operations and maintenance environment.
A BU funded research is looking into Sustainable Design of Domestic Micro Combined Heat and Power (CHP) systems. Micro CHP systems are very efficient and effective in generating electricity and in producing heat and hot water simultaneously.
A second BU funded research project "Plasma sprayed coatings with laser surface treatment for novel rolling/sliding contact applications" is looking to improve serviceability performance and reliability of rolling contacts by applying novel thermal techniques as thermal sprayed cermet coatings.
Ceramics Tribology
This area of research is funded from significant international research centres in The Netherlands and USA . SKF Engineering and research centre (The Netherlands) have fully funded 3 PhD studentships (£38K, Hadfield), £54K (Hadfield) and £57K (Hadfield), one fellowship (£70K) and a number of short-term projects during the RAE period (£16K).
A successful bid to the Federal Department of Energy with ORNL resulted in a £90K grant (Hadfield). Zulfiqar Khan (Director SDRC) and Dr Ping Zhao (fellow) completed PhD degrees in this area.
Significant long standing collaborations are established with Universities in Japan and Spain . Several research students have spent four weeks in Japan using facilities at Ashikaga Institute of Technology. These visits have been subsidised by Professor Tobe in Japan and have resulted in significant publications over the past fifteen years, three journal publications within this RAE period (Zulfiqar Khan).
Sustainable Design
Teaching development based on research was the basis of the successful grant Royal Academy of Engineering grant in Sustainable development to second a visiting professor (£98K over five years). This prestigious grant was won in competition with UK universities as was one of five successful bids from 28 University applications in 1999. This activity has resulted in a website ( spd.bournemouth.ac.uk ) used for teaching all levels of design group programmes and by other UK and European universities. In addition collaborative meetings with Aston and Birmingham Universities took place over the past six years.
This area of strength with numerous international conference and journal publications produced has continued with an externally funded PhD project under the supervision of Professor Hadfield and Maggie Hutchings which has produced an award winning publication.
The historical research area of the SDRC, as evidenced by the themes above, has revolved around the highly technical aspects of sustainable design, namely the techno-centric dimension. However, more recently, the research of the SDRC has expanded to encompass the socio-cultural aspects of sustainable design. Initially, this developed from the area of sustainable design education with the awarding of an HEA grant to build a web-based learning resource for the socio-centric dimension, however, this has now expanded through consultancy work currently being undertaken, and through current bidding for funding, for example, to investigate how product life spans may be extended by re-designing products with a focus on product attachment.
It is envisaged that further expansion of this research area, potentially, in conjunction with a large commercial partner will produce a defined sub-group of the SDRC , which works with the Psychology Research Group, researching the expanding area of sustainable product design. This may also include consideration of new business models.
Lean Manufacturing
Prior to the formation of the Sustainable Design Research Centre (SDRC), the School of Design , Engineering and Computing has had a long and successful record of enterprise activities relating to lean manufacturing. The School has successfully completed two EU Framework Projects and a number of TCSs/KTPs (Teaching Company Scheme/ Knowledge Transfer Partnership) in this area. Professor Hadfield has produced journal publications and attended international conferences in relation to waste minimisation.
The Centre currently has a KTP with Redmayne Engineering Limited and the aim of the partnership is to improve the competitiveness and productivity of the company through the better use of knowledge, technology and skills. Redmayne Engineering specialises in the production of fine limit components for the aerospace and allied industries.
SDRC is actively working with industry and continues to support lean manufacturing projects in the form of enterprise, short courses and consultancy.
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