The overall goal of CORNERSTONE is to support Rolls-Royce in remaining ahead of its competition in terms of its capability to develop high performance power-conversion machines for aerospace.

The EPSRC-funded project set out to achieve this overall goal by delivering significant advances in the six main areas, each defined by its own respective aim:

  • Complete the understanding of high power density contacts in engines
  • Achieve a step change in understanding and managing impacts on rotating systems
  • Develop and apply methods for calculating and managing dynamic loads in complex m/cs
  • Integrate aero-structural interaction with complex dynamic models and exploit this interctn
  • Release the potential of “bearingless motor” effects for inline electric machines in engines
  • Engineer radically new thermal management methods to permit new power density levels

The effect of these combined strands of work will be to enable:

  • Reduced emissions from flight
  • Reduced noise pollution in flight
  • Increased power-density
  • Maintained / increased reliability

Work being undertaken at Queens University Belfast (QUB) complements the above work-strands by streamlining the engine design process such that the characteristics of the engine support structure (i.e. the aircraft – but particularly the wing) are properly taken into account during the engine design.