Power-Dense Power Electronic Conversion Technologies for Laser Energy Transfer Systems

The project is to contribute to a major Ministry of Defence (MOD) research programme intended to develop generation after next technologies for applications in defence and security, and this project will be co-funded by Raytheon UK.

Isolated DC-DC Power Electronic Converters are a key enabling technology for High-Power Laser Energy Transfer Systems. Designing these converters to meet demanding and potentially conflicting efficiency, stability, dynamic performance, thermal and fault-tolerance requirements is particularly challenging. Furthermore, in all aerospace requirements, it is essential that both the gravimetric and volumetric power density of the power converter designs are maximised in order to have a minimal detrimental impact on the overall host-vehicle platform range and operational envelope. This PhD project will focus on making key advances in complementary areas of DC-DC power converter design (potentially including integrated thermal architectures) in order to further improve the potential power density beyond the current state of the art.

A successful PhD project in this area will successfully make 2-3 major contributions to the academic state of the art in the field of power-dense DC-DC converter design. These novel features will be first simulated in computer simulation software as a preliminary derisking exercise. A proof of concept benchtop demonstrator will then be designed and built in order to validate the effectiveness of the proposed novel concepts.

Pending the successful development of new concepts, it is expected that the underpinning key features will be captured in academic publications, and potentially even patent applications supported by the sponsor company.

The plan is to recruit a PhD candidate to undertake this project and be part of a new MoD/EPSRC Energy Transfer Technology Skills and Training (S&T) Hub. The main aim of the S&T Hub is to train the next generation of leaders in energy transfer technologies relevant for defence and other related applications. The Hub is supported by MoD, Dstl, and UK companies working in the defence and security sector.

Each student funded by the Hub will have an industrial partner and have opportunities to work with and train alongside experts from industry. The Hub offers individual’s training for both a research and an industrial career path.

The student will be based at the University of Strathclyde but will be part of cohort of approximately 12 PhD students per year across a number of UK institutions. The Skills and Training Hub will run online and face-to-face activities to facilitate cohort building and group learning exercises throughout the PhD programme. The duration of the PhD is 4 years, and the start date is 1st October 2024.

The PhD student will be physically located in the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow [https://www.strath.ac.uk/, https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/energy-transfer-skills-training-hub]

The industrial partner, Raytheon UK, is an internationally-leading company manufacturing equipment for aerospace applications across the UK. A subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies (USA), RUK’s contribution to the UK economy is £762 million, supporting 8,300 supply chain jobs. In Scotland, RUK has facilities in Livingston and Glenrothes. The University of Strathclyde has a longstanding successful collaborative-research relationship with RUK, spanning over ten years.

PhD Candidates must hold a minimum of an upper Second Class UK Honours degree or international equivalent in a relevant science or engineering discipline. Candidates must be UK Nationals and be willing to apply for and able to obtain Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) clearance.