Research

We conduct applied as well as fundamental research in the general field of fluid flow and heat transfer combining computational simulations with experimental investigations.

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Nuclear Thermal Hydraulics

We perform thermal hydraulic analysis to support safety cases, design modifications & operations; develop and improve computational tools, methods and correlations; and conduct fundamental research to better understand active and passive cooling phenomena in general.

Our key research areas are:

  • Advanced gas-cooled reactors (AGR) - those currently in operation in the UK.
  • Future reactor designs - the so-called Generation IV reactors, including SCWRs, SFRs and HTGRs. 
  • Fundamental and generic research on phenomena commonly encountered in many reactor designs.
  • Modelling and simulation tools and methods development.

Please visit: Nuclear Thermal Hydraulics research

Turbulence

Our turbulence research focuses on non-equilibrium problems mostly based on computational simulations using DNS, LES and RANS. We also operate an unsteady flow facility equipped with LDA and PIV optical measurements.

Our key research topics are:

  • Bypass transition of transient turbulent flow
  • Flow laminarisation
  • Unsteady flow - experiments and modelling
  • Heat transfer to fluids at supercritical pressure

Please visit: Turbulence research

Additional research topics

Methodology and resources

We develop and maintain a number of in-house computer codes and use various local and national high performance computing (HPC) resources. We operate an unsteady flow facility. 

  • CHAPSim - a direct numerical simulation code 
  • SWIRL - a conventional CFD (RANS) code
  • LBMCODE - Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM)
  • SUFF - Sheffield Unsteady Flow Facility

Our resources