Research
Research
The School has extensive links with industry, including the newly established Brunel Innovation Centre (BIC) a collaboration between Brunel and TWI (the Welding Institute). This informs the relevance and direction of our research, which is organised in the following broad areas:
Applied Mechanics, which includes biomedical engineering amongst other topics in solids and fluid mechanics; Design & Manufacture, including advanced manufacturing and enterprise engineering, environmentally sensitive design, computer aided design, and human centred design; Energy & Environment, including internal combustion engines, heat transfer and thermal systems, and built environment engineering; Civil Engineering; and Electronic & Computer Engineering, with research in a diversity of areas such as power systems, sensors & instrumentation, wireless networks and communications, media communications and electronic systems.
School Research: Groups, Facilities and Activities Overview
To find out more about the research groups, facilities and activities within the school view the presentation here.
Academic areas covered by School of Engineering & Design
AMEE
Research group
AMEE research group a leading, world class research group in advanced manufacturing technology, enterprise engineering and engineering management, this is truly a place where cutting edge research brings the frontiers of science and technology to postgraduate and undergraduate students. Our members ensure that we can provide an excellent experience in a friendly and supportive environment
Laboratory
The department is equiped with cutting edge laboratories in their research. These include:
- Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT) Laboratory
- Enterprise Engineering & Systems Laboratory
- CAD/CAM Laboratory
Brunel Design
Research in Design is coordinated under the Brunel Design Research Centre to which all Design staff belong, and which is organised according to following thematic priorities:
Design and Human Wellbeing
Inclusive Design – Hua Dong, Farnaz Nickpour, Graeme Evans
Perception Enhancement – Joseph Giacomin, Marco Ajovalasit
Design and Urban & Environmental Sustainability
Spatial Design – Graeme Evans, Busayawan Lam, Olinkha Gustafson-Pearce
Sustainable Design – Fabrizio Ceschin, David Harrison, Graeme Evans, Ian de Vere, Richard Bonser
Cleaner Electronics – David Harrison, Yanmeng Xu, Peter Evans
Design for the Creative Industries
Design Policy and Management – Busayawan Lam, Youngok Choi, Stephen Green, Graeme Evans
Open Design and Digital Economy – Sharon Baurley, Sarah Silve, Stephen Green, Shengfeng Qin, Graeme Evans
Digital Design - Shengfeng Qin, Jinsheng Kang, Sarah Silve
Advanced Materials and Manufacture – Richard Bonser, David Rees, Sarah Silve, Richard Rakowski, Yanmeng Xu
Research-led Knowledge Transfer/Knowledge Exchange and Industry Funded Research
Designplus leads much of our KT/KE activity, which has been significantly enhanced through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) funded ‘Co-Innovate’ initiative.
The Brunel Design Research Centre runs an annual seminar series:
| Human Wellbeing | Urban & Environmental Sustainability | Creative Industries | Research methods training for PhD students | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2013 | Inclusive Design | Inclusive Design | ||
| May | Spatial Design | Spatial Design | ||
| June | Design Policy & Management | Design Policy & Management | ||
| July | Perception Enhancement | Perception Enhancement | ||
| September | Sustainable Design | Sustainable Design | ||
| October | Open Design & Digital Economy | Open Design & Digital Economy | ||
| November | Cleaner Electronics | Cleaner Electronics | ||
| December | Digital Design | Digital Design | ||
| January 2014 | Advanced Materials & Manufacture | Advanced Materials & Manufacture | ||
| February | Inclusive Design | Inclusive Design | ||
| March | Spatial Design | Spatial Design |
Civil Eng.
Information on our research can be found in our Research Brochure. Our Current Research Students are listed here. We are currently looking to recruit highly motivated students to undertake postgraduate research in the following areas:
Innovative materialsand sustainable construction (contact: Dr Mizi Fan)
Timber and reengineered timber products; Natural fibre composites; Wood cement composites; Materials from recyclates; Advanced composites; Lightweight construction; Innovative construction design.
Geo-engineering and the environment (contact: Dr Philip Collins)
Site investigation; characteristics and stability of engineering soils and sediments; coastal and floodplain environmental change; earthquake impacts; cold environment soil and hydraulic processes; environmental engineering.
Advanced structures (contact: Dr Giulio Alfano)
Analysis of RC beams retrofitted with FRP; cohesive-zone models for the analysis of delamination in composites and crack growth; Non linear analysis of reinforced-concrete structures; silo structures; monitoring bridges.
Fibre-reinforced concrete materials and structures, structural testing and modelling, structural dynamics and earthquake engineering (Contact: Dr Xiangming Zhou)
- Testing and modeling of shrinkage and fracture of concrete and other cement-based materials at early ages
- Advanced concrete technology, such as development of cement-based building products using extrusion technology; modeling of extrusion process of cement-based materials
- Rheology testing and modeling of highly concentrated cement-based materials suitable for extrusion
- Low carbon and low energy construction materials such as geopolymer, magnesium cement-based materials etc.
- Utilization of industrial waste such as GGBS, PFA etc. in construction materials
- Earthquake engineering and performance-based multi-hazards mitigation of high-rise building structures
- Testing and modeling of steel-concrete composite structures
- Testing and modeling of concrete segmental girder bridges
- Testing and modeling of fiber-reinforced concrete structures such as fiber-reinforced concrete ground slabs
Construction management principles and applications (Contact: Dr Nuhu Braimah)
Delay and disruption analysis in construction contracts, planning and programming, project change and claims management.
In addition, through our interdisciplinary links within the School of Engineering & Design, the University and beyond, and particularly the Energy & Environmental Sustainability and Complexity Collaborative Research Networks, we welcome enquiries from students interested in the following areas:
- Sustainability
- Energy systems
- Building services (e.g. climate control, refrigeration control)
- Waste assessment and treatment (water and solids), filtration and recycling
- Fluid dynamics
- Geophysics
- Environmental Change
- Geology and geomorphology (particularly carbonates, intertidal sediments, lakes, hazards)
- Urban Green Space
- Environmental geochemistry
- Radiometric dating
- Gender & Engineering
ECE
Research activities in ECE cover a wide range of areas which have direct compliance with the industry vision and requirements, and are carried out in five research centres formed around two broad thematic areas namely, telecommunications, sustainable energy and systems. The Department has an extensive research portfolio totalling £7.5M worth of ongoing research grants and contracts and is a major part of a General Engineering submission that was ranked 5th in UK in the last Research Assessment Exercise (RAE2008). This is in addition to a large set of comprehensive high-quality teaching and learning resources coupled with strong research links with industry and an excellent record of employment amongst our graduates. Electronic and Computer Engineering at Brunel also benefits from geographical proximity to most of the country’s information engineering and telecommunications industry.
Research in ECE is undertaken in 5 well established research centres;
- Centre for Media Communications Research (CMCR)
(research brochure) - Wireless Networks and Communications Centre (WNCC)
(research brochure) - Brunel Institute for Power Systems (BIPS)
(research brochure) - Centre for Electronic Systems Research (CESR)
(research brochure) - Centre for Sensors and Instrumentation (CSI)
(research brochure)
Mechanical Eng.
Brunel University Research Archive
