Power and Energy Systems

• PhD student: Simon Hodgkinson
• Supervisors: Dr Andrew Quinn, Prof Lee Chapman, Dr David Jaroszweski
• Duration: 2015-2019

This research concerns the role of extreme weather as an instigator of cascading infrastructure failure. Extreme weather events can cause significant damage to the built environment, with infrastructure assets being of particular concern. Networked infrastructure, such as transport and energy, are interdependent in that they place demands upon each other for a resource. When one network is disrupted, the flow of a resource is also disrupted and failure can cascade on to dependent networks. There is a strong dependence of the railway network on the electricity system for a supply of electrical power, both for traction and safety-critical elements.

This project aims to assess and quantify the problem of cascading failure from electricity to railway infrastructure during extreme weather events. It takes a practical data-driven approach, combining both infrastructure fault and meteorological data to identify the relationships between physical failure and weather events, along with an assessment of spatio-temporal fault distributions to identify particularly vulnerable assets. Subsequent projections of cascading failure under future climate scenarios will ultimately result in a series of recommendations or suggestions for the rail industry to ensure network resilience.

• PhD Student: Mr. Wisam Al-Shohani
• Supervisors: Dr. Raya AL-Dadah & Dr. Saad Mahmoud
• Duration: 2014-2018

Solar energy is abundant in Middle Eastern countries like Iraq and harnessing such renewable energy source will contribute to reducing carbon emissions both locally and worldwide. The use of silicon based Solar photovoltaic panels to generate electricity has increased significantly, however, their efficiency is low as they can only utilize part of the solar spectrum while the remaining part of the spectrum is converted to heat. Water can absorb the Ultraviolet (UV) and part of Infrared (IR), which are un-active spectra ranges for PV, and transmittance the Visible (VIS) and some of IR to the PV surface, which are active wavelength parts for PV.

This project investigates using water as an optical filter for Photovoltaic/Thermal (PVT) and Concentrating Photovoltaic/Thermal (CPVT) modules to reduce the heat accumulation in the cells and improve the overall efficiency.

• PhD student: Mrs Ghada Sadiq
• Supervisors: Dr. R. K. AL-Dadah & Dr. Saad Mahmoud
• Duration: 2013-2017

Hybrid engines for automotive applications offer the advantage of lower fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. The rotary Wankel expanders outperform other types of expanders due to their compactness, low vibration, noise and cost. This project aims to develop a Wankel multistage expander for compressed air hybrid engine using computational fluid dynamics CFD modelling and experimental testing to optimize the performance of the developed expander.

• PhD student: Miss Eman Elsayed
• Supervisors: Dr. Raya AL-Dadah & Dr. Saad Mahmoud
• Duration: 2014-2018

Water scarcity is a natural and human-made problem that is endangering the mankind existence. Seven hundred million people around the world are suffering from water scarcity; another 500 million are approaching this situation. The situation is expected to worsen by 2025. With such a growth rate, new water resources and treatment techniques are urgently needed. One of the most promising alternative water resources is seawater as water represents more than 70% of the planet and 97% of this water body is saltwater. Desalination is generally defined as the process by which potable water is produced from the seawater or brackish water with high dissolved suspended solids content (>35000 ppm). Adsorption desalination is a desalination method that has many advantages such as being environmentally friendly, running on low grade heat sources and requiring low capital cost.

This study investigates the potential of a new class of adsorbents, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), instead of the conventional adsorbents like silica gel and zeolite in the adsorption desalination application.