The cost and time of designing new products within the aerospace, automobile and sports industries could be dramatically reduced, thanks to a breakthrough new technology.
Eclat Solutions Ltd, winners of the University of Bristol’s 2008 New Enterprise Competition, has developed new software based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), enabling engineers to virtually crawl inside their designs and see how they perform.
Through computer modelling, the software allows the simulation of flows of gases and liquids, heat and mass transfer, moving bodies and chemical reaction. The technology has a range of applications, from being able to measure the effect of air velocity on aircraft wings, through to the effect of airflow on the performance of Formula 1 racing cars. The new technology will also reduce traditional product testing times.
Eclat’s software can also be extended to other areas – from being able to gain an insight into the effect of breathing different sized particles in a human airway to being able to measure the effect of flow over an elite swimmer gliding under water.
Led by a team of researchers in the University’s Department of Aerospace Engineering (Professor C Allen, A Morris and T Rendall, assisted by Derek Fuller and James Tibbatts), Eclat Solutions were awarded first prize at the University’s prestigious annual Enterprise Dinner held this week. The prize included £10,000 with six months managed office space at the Bristol SETsquared Business Acceleration Centre and free legal advice from Osborne Clarke.
Second prize was awarded to DocCom Solutions, who received £10,000 for their Junior Doctors Internet System. Dr Jonathan Bloor and Dr Jonathan Shaw founded DocCom (Doctor Communication Solutions Ltd) to solve the problems in communicating with, and managing doctors across the NHS. Its founders are junior doctors working at United Bristol Healthcare NHS Trust (UBHT), whose experiences led them to develop a web based communication and management system.
A third prize of £8,000 went to Vibratip, a device for monitoring vibrating sense developed by Professor Andy Levy, based in the University’s Clinical Sciences. Vibratip is a simple, disposable, key-fob sized device that uses a button battery-driven vibrator motor to deliver a uniform source of vibration to the skin. It is designed to supersede the use of a tuning fork to test vibration sense in routine clinical practice.
This year’s competition entries were judged by a panel of experts from the sponsoring organisations including Bristol City Council, Edwards, Business Link, Deloitte, Fortis Bank, IP Group, Osborne Clarke, Sulis and the University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust.