Dr Fleur Loveridge from the University has been awarded with a prestigious Research Fellowship from the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng).
The fellowships, which are highly competitive, provide significant support for five years to outstanding researchers to establish independent careers in research that are useful to industry and or society, or have genuine high-growth potential in either a new product or service.
Dr Loveridge, a Research Fellow in Engineering and the Environment, was awarded a Fellowship for her research into how building foundations can be used to reduce the country’s energy demand and CO2 emissions.
Space heating and cooling accounts for almost half of the UK’s annual energy use, about 100 million tonnes of oil equivalent. Ground heat exchangers and ground source heat pumps can reduce this energy consumption by up to 75 per cent. Engineering building foundations that double as heat exchangers can represent a solution, but more research is required to improve their design and performance.
Dr Loveridge aims to address these issues in her fellowship via a series of controlled experiments in a new large-scale laboratory facility. Her research will test both the materials used in the foundations and the response of the ground to them.
This unique and novel study will provide comprehensive data on the behaviour of foundations as heat exchangers and lead to major advances in the development of new models and design tools for industry.
Dr Loveridge says: “I am delighted to have been awarded a RAEng Research Fellowship. This is an amazing opportunity and I am excited about getting stuck into my research project, and ultimately making a difference to how we use energy in buildings.”