City, University of London
The Turbomachinery and Energy System Research Group at City is active in the areas of distributed power generation, combined hear and power, thermal energy storage and waste heat recovery. System developed include micro gas turbines in the power range 6-20 kWe, Organic Rankine Cycles and Latent heat thermal energy storage units.
Experimental and computational research has been conducted to provide fundamental understanding of turbomachinery fluid flow and heat transfer in radial and axial flow turbomachinery. Additionally, research has been undertaken to understand the role that non-ideal gas effects and supersonic flows have on turboexpander performance. Experimental and computational research is also undertaken in ship propellers. The research is supported by in-house state-of-the-art test rigs and computational models.
Applied research is focusing on the areas of micro gas turbines for parabolic dish concentrated solar power applications, where an entire system has been built and demonstrated; small scale organic Rankine cycles, with focus on turbo expander characterisation and design, cycle optimisation and working fluid selection; and energy storage systems for distributed applications. This includes work on high-temperature thermal storage and mechanical storage using flywheels.
The research group is an active member within the European Turbine Network (ETN), and is at the forefront of the micro gas turbine research community, which includes establishing the European Micro Gas Turbine Forum (EMGTF) and organising its first meeting at City.
