Seven UK universities are joining forces with Rolls-Royce to invent new metal alloys that can withstand the extreme heat and stress inside a gas turbine engine. The problem is straightforward: today’s jet engines and power turbines are already pushing the limits of existing steels and nickel, cobalt, titanium, and niobium-based alloys. To make engines burn fuel more efficiently—cutting CO₂ emissions and keeping UK aerospace competitive—engineers need materials that hold up at higher temperatures without cracking, corroding, or wearing out. The research also tackles practical hurdles like how to join these new alloys together and how to seal the gaps between turbine blades. If it succeeds, the work could directly reduce the carbon footprint of air travel and power generation. It also protects an industry that supports 230,000 UK jobs, mostly outside the South East. This is applied fundamental science: the team is after the basic understanding of how these materials degrade in service, so that new alloys can be used safely without sacrificing performance. The industrial partners are already lined up to turn the lab results into commercial products.
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The UK aerospace industry is the largest in Europe and, worldwide, second only to the US. The aerospace sector directly supports more than 3,000 companies and provides 230,000 jobs in the UK. Importantly, most of this employment falls outside the south-east and the average wage is above the national average. In the UK, the manufacture of gas turbine engines represents 32% of the aerospace business and is dominated by Rolls-Royce, with 114,000 jobs supported by Rolls-Royce and its supply chain. This research programme brings together the universities of Birmingham, Cambridge, Imperial College, Manchester, Oxford, Sheffield and Swansea, to perform the fundamental research required to realise new materials technologies that will provide step-changes in the efficiency of gas turbines. This will help secure the commercial competitiveness of much of the UK aerospace industry whilst simultaneously serving to reduce UK CO2 emissions, thereby satisfying international legislation and decreasing the likelihood of irreversible climate change. The research will focus on the development of the new, high performance steels, nickel, cobalt, titanium and niobium-based alloys required for the most demanding applications with gas turbine engines. It will also seek to obtain the fundamental understanding of the performance and degradation of these materials needed to ensure that they may be used safely, without compromising engine performance. It will also include additional activities investigating key enabling technologies, such as advanced joining methods and materials for turbine blade seals. These materials technologies will be developed in close collaboration with the industrial partners to ensure that they are matched to industrial need and that a route for commercial exploitation is available.
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