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The UK government made it clear in a recent white paper of 2008 that nuclear energy was a vital part of the UKs energy mix to ensure both security of supply and a commitment to reduction in CO2 emissions. The recent Office of Nuclear Regulation Weightman report on the Fukushima accident has confirmed that Fukushima showed no reason to curtail nuclear operation or nuclear new build in the UK and in 2012 it is expected that EDF will start work on the first new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point. Perhaps one key issue/lesson learnt from the Fukushima accident, especially in Japan, was the need for continued research into nuclear safety to support existing and new build nuclear power plant programmes. Until recently there has been relatively little UK research into nuclear power and as such there are also relatively few young academics truly in the field. There is also a growing need to train new young talented engineers and physicists in nuclear engineering disciplines if the new build programme is to be successful and to help rebuild the UKs reputation as a world leader in this field. This proposal is made to try to address some of these issues and at the same time explore a new growing area of modelling, known as peridynamics, with great potential for modelling many problems within the nuclear engineering materials area. The project aims to investigate two nuclear fuel problems thus far difficult to model: pellet-cladding interactions (PCI) in nuclear fuels and oxide phase change/spallation on zirconium alloy cladding of water-cooled reactors. These problems are ideal for a mixed finite element (FE) -peridynamics modelling approach. Both PCI and oxide growth and spallation require a model that is able to deal with a ductile material (cladding) bonded to a brittle material (UO2 ceramic fuel) under complex stress states, geometries and incorporating heat transfer and material heterogeneity. The peridynamics approach is able to model material with defects without some of the numerical issues inherent within the FE approach. However, combining the two modelling techniques can bring the advantages of both techniques together. This project will develop a peridynamics implementation into the finite element code Abaqus. The models will then be developed further to model the specific problems of PCI and oxide spallation problems described. The project will also develop a new young post doctoral researcher and a early career academic in the field of nuclear fuel modelling.

The field of energy storage is broad and complex, encompassing a wide range of potential energy storage technologies and applications. Energy storage can include the storage of electricity (e.g. batteries, supercapacitors), heat (e.g. phase change materials, hot water, cryogenic cycles), chemical energy (e.g. hydrogen), gravitational potential energy (e.g. pumped hydro) and mechanical energy (e.g. flywheels and compressed air). Applications range from small batteries (W's) for consumer goods, through engineered battery packs (kW's) for hybrid and electric vehicles, to large scale energy storage for grid integration (>MW's), and with energy requirements that also depend on the application. This proposal seeks to establish a research network in energy storage for the UK. The network will consider all the potential storage approaches, with applications focussing in particular on those important to the provision of future low carbon energy systems, so electric and hybrid vehicles and grid scale applications. These are also areas where the UK has a strong research and technology interests. The network will link the academic, industrial and policy communities together, and will be guided by an advisory board with representatives from each of these sectors. The network will organise a series of meetings and workshops over a three year period to help develop a more integrated energy storage research community in the UK, and to raise the profile of UK energy storage research both nationally and internationally. Key outcomes and learning will be disseminated via a dedicated website, including research reports arising from workshops and meetings.

Large Eddy Simulation (LES) is gradually replacing traditional Reynolds-averaged-Navier-Stokes (RANS) modelling as the method of choice for predicting complex turbulent flows in research as well as industrial practice. This is especially so when unsteady phenomena are to be resolved (vibrations, acoustics, thermal striping, pressure peaks). However, the exploitation of LES for predicting practical wall-confined flows, particularly those involving separation from curved surfaces, is seriously inhibited by practically untenable resource requirements at high Reynolds numbers. Hybrid LES-RANS schemes, employing some form of RANS-like solution in the near-wall region, are generally regarded as a compromise strategy circumventing the resource obstacle. Existing schemes are based on the use of RANS models that operate in unsteady mode, as they are subjected to high amplitude, high-frequency fluctuations imposed on the layer by the outer LES solution. These models thus operate far outside their intended range of applicability. Moreover, in most approaches, the small-scale motions not resolved explicitly by the LES are represented by an ill-defined blend of subgrid-scale and RANS turbulence models - i.e. there is no clear dividing line between the LES and RANS components. Not surprisingly, such models display a whole range of disconcerting defects.This submission proposes a collaboration between two groups who have been at the forefront of developing RANS-LES schemes in the UK. Indeed, the two groups are the only UK academic partners who have participated in the four-year EU FP6 project DESider, specifically devoted to RANS-LES modelling for industrial applications, and in the follow-up 22-partner FP7 project ATAAC (Advanced Turbulence Simulation for Aerodynamic Application Challenges). Electricite de France (EDF) will support the programme to the level of one man-year of PDRA.The proposed project aims specifically at LES-RANS hybrids that distinguish carefully between the LES and RANS elements, each applied subject to appropriate, well-established constrains and coupled rationally. The project involves two major strands: (i) the development of a novel zonal (two-layer) scheme, which entails the solution of steady, parabolized RANS equations, subject to on-the-fly time-averaged constraints derived from the LES solution, and the use of an anisotropy-resolving turbulence model over a thin near-wall layer superimposed onto the LES domain; (ii) the integration and validation of (i), as well as an extended version of a newly-developed RANS-LES hybrid (Uribe et al [2007]), which shares some basic concepts with proposed model under (i), into a state-of-the-art numerical framework (Saturne), which is promoted by EPSRC's CCP12 as a general prediction tool for computing turbulent flows in very complex geometries on HPCx and HECTOR. A key characteristic of Uribe et al's model is that it respects the need to separate the RANS-derived Reynolds stresses from the inherently unsteady LES, and to desensitize the resolved perturbations and the subgrids-scale stresses from the RANS model. To that extent, the model is based on the same philosophy underpinning the zonal scheme to be developed, although the two models differ radically in respect of their design.

Energy use in existing housing is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions in all developed countries. These emissions need to be reduced significantly and rapidly over the next 40 years to meet international targets and to help stabilise the climate, and therefore low carbon refurbishment of existing housing needs to play a key role. The technologies that might be used are broadly understood, but many are only deployed at very low levels compared to their future potential, and the technologies are not as familiar to building-related professions as they will need to become. These professionals have a strong influence over decisions about what work gets done, and so they have a major role in tackling climate change.The role of social science in this area of energy research has focussed largely to date on the behaviour of owners and occupiers of housing. Yet, the large number of housing-related trades and professions all play a role, both in implementing technical change and influencing owners and occupiers. Our research will address the implications of low carbon refurbishment for the relevant professions (architects, surveyors, engineers, estate agents, builders etc.), and their role in promoting and/or resisting change. The questions we will be investigating include: How might different professions react to the threats and opportunities implied by low carbon refurbishment? How might the need for low carbon refurbishment change the roles and interactions of professions? How are existing professions developing to meet the challenge? Which professions will gain control over the new activities involved in low carbon refurbishment? Or will new professions be needed to carry out new roles? If so, what are these roles and how will this shift influence other professions? Does the level of skills and knowledge required imply the professionalization of some roles currently seen as trades? How do the relevant institutions (trade associations, training organizations, professional bodies) view this issue and how are they preparing for it?To address these questions we will draw on two broad areas of existing knowledge - research in socio-technical systems (the process of technical innovation and associated social change) and the theory of systems of professions (which has studied the interaction of professions). Our goal is to bring the insights of the two approaches together to address the issues of professional interaction in meeting the challenge of low carbon refurbishment.We will conduct interviews with past and current innovators in this field, as well as surveying a broader range of 'mainstream' housing professionals. We will study decisions in ongoing innovative projects to understand decision making processes. And we will interview a broader range of stakeholders, including policy makers, professional organisations and trainers, to get an understanding of their attitudes and the institutional framework within which change might occur. We will do this work in both the UK and France, in order to draw comparisons and to understand the similarities and differences, and therefore help inform conclusions about the role of existing cultures and institutions.Our main findings will be academic reports, papers and conference presentations. However, we expect the results will be directly useful to both policy-makers and built environment professionals. We will engage with these groups both in the course of the research and to disseminate the final results. We will therefore present our research findings at conferences, events and in trade journals, and maintain a dedicated website to make our research accessible. We will organize final seminars for policy-makers to highlight the lessons learned from the research.