AOrbit will allow Europe to develop the capabilities needed to underpin the development of the next generation of aero and other gas turbine engines with smaller, hotter cores, employing architectures and technologies such as Ultra High Bypass Ratios (UHBR) including power gearboxes based on the AOrbit innovations that will deliver the performance improvements and reliability that will be demanded in the future. By supporting these developments the project will assist European aircraft manufacturers in maintaining their market share in the wide-body market (worth ca $275bn), and in due course also in the critical narrow-body market (worth ca $350bn 2012-2013).
UNOTT has a strong track record of working with the energy industry, and the facility will broaden that work to include the industrial gas turbine market, and so bring wider benefits to the UK and European economy. It is noted that “the face of power generation in the UK is set to change over the next few years as the need to replace obsolete plants, meet greenhouse gas emission and other environmental targets, and to provide security of energy supplies” . Clearly a need exists in the industrial gas power sector to reduce the cost of the product to remain competitive against other forms of power generation (renewable and nuclear) and other markets (notably in Asia). Therefore, a requirement to revise and simplify the designs of these systems exists. Technological areas where such revision is needed include transmissions and dynamics issues, as well as lubrication and cooling. KPMG, in a review of the energy sector, also recognise this requirement for technological development, and argue the need for investment of around £200bn in energy infrastructure over the next 10 years . In the UK in particular this means better supporting R&T and R&D activities .
Gas turbine performance has shown continuous strong improvement over the years since 1950. This is continuing with corresponding rise in the operating temperatures, pressures (OPR heading towards 80) and shaft speeds (heading for up to 30,000 rpm). The current ACARE 2020 and Flightpath 2050 environmental targets and the continuing need for gas turbine manufacturers to offer the best possible Specific Fuel Consumption (SFC) will continue to drive these trends upward for the aerospace sector. To respond to commercial needs and commercial pressures, but also to remain competitive against its main American rivals, Rolls-Royce have recently announced two new engines, Advance and UltraFan™ , the latter a geared turbo-fan engine. Looking longer term, the prospect of an even more fuel efficient engine architecture, the Open Rotor Design (ORD) has been developed in Clean Sky and is due to be flight tested in Clean Sky 2.
