Commercial aviation contributes 2-3 % to global carbon emissions and the International Energy Agency has predicted that this will triple within the next three decades if no action is taken. In the UK the current contribution is 10% due to high levels of international traffic, and this could reach 40% by 2050 without action. The UK government has therefore set out an ambitious target to demonstrate a zero-carbon emission aircraft by 2030 within the UK Hydrogen and Net Zero Strategies. The design and manufacture of aircraft has previously focused on incrementally improving structural efficiency and productivity of the semi-monocoque parts which make up the wing, fuselage and tail, with a degree of linkage between fuel tank boundaries and structural function. However, next-generation aircraft will require energy storage using fully integrated structures and materials whilst accounting for environmental impact. GKN is the leading global Tier-one supplier of parts for most of the world's aircraft manufacturers. The University of Bath has world-leading expertise in the analysis, design and manufacture of composite parts, as well as in the creation of functional materials and their use for sustainable hydrogen energy. GKN and Bath have a track record of collaboration via a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair, eighteen joint PhDs and as formal partner in four EPSRC projects including an ongoing Programme Grant (CerTest, EP/S017038/1). Previous research has focussed in the areas of structural composites and manufacture, with most collaboration within Bath's Materials and Structures (MAST) Centre. The ZENITH Prosperity Partnership arises from GKN's ambition to realise zero-emission aircraft in the 2030-40 timeframe and the University of Bath identifying sustainability as a priority research theme. It addresses fundamental challenges within the two major research themes of Hydrogen Storage and Sustainable Structures. It brings together a highly skilled, multidisciplinary team of scientists and engineers from MAST, the Departments of Chemical Engineering (hydrogen storage, heat transfer), Chemistry (sustainable polymers, porous materials) and Mathematical Sciences (statistical modelling). It will exploit links with leading research institutes and centres at Bath, including the Centre for Sustainable and Circular Technologies (CSCT), the Institute for Advanced Propulsion Systems (IAAPS) and the planned UKRI Centre of Excellence for Hydrogen Research. ZENITH will establish GKN and UK academia as world leaders in manufacture of parts for zero emission aircraft, positioning the UK at the forefront of this rapidly developing market.

Manufacture Using Advanced Powder Processes - MAPP Conventional materials shaping and processing are hugely wasteful and energy intensive. Even with well-structured materials circulation strategies in place to recondition and recycle process scrap, the energy use, CO2 emitted and financial costs associated are ever more prohibitive and unacceptable. We can no longer accept the traditional paradigm of manufacturing where excess energy use and high levels of recycling / down cycling of expensive and resource intensive materials are viewed as inevitable and the norm and must move to a situation where 100% of the starting material is incorporated into engineering products with high confidence in the final critical properties. MAPP's vision is to deliver on the promise of powder-based manufacturing processes to provide low energy, low cost, and low waste high value manufacturing route and products to secure UK manufacturing productivity and growth. MAPP will deliver on the promise of advanced powder processing technologies through creation of new, connected, intelligent, cyber-physical manufacturing environments to achieve 'right first time' product manufacture. Achieving our vision and realising the potential of these technologies will enable us to meet our societal goals of reducing energy consumption, materials use, and CO2 emissions, and our economic goals of increasing productivity, rebalancing the UK's economy, and driving economic growth and wealth creation. We have developed a clear strategy with a collaborative and interdisciplinary research and innovation programme that focuses our collective efforts to deliver new understanding, actions and outcomes across the following themes: 1) Particulate science and innovation. Powders will become active and designed rather than passive elements in their processing. Control of surface state, surface chemistry, structure, bulk chemistry, morphologies and size will result in particles designed for process efficiency / reliability and product performance. Surface control will enable us to protect particles out of process and activate them within. Understanding the influence between particle attributes and processing will widen the limited palette of materials for both current and future manufacturing platforms. 2) Integrated process monitoring, modelling and control technologies. New approaches to powder processing will allow us to handle the inherent variability of particulates and their stochastic behaviours. Insights from advanced in-situ characterisation will enable the development of new monitoring technologies that assure quality, and coupled to modelling approaches allow optimisation and control. Data streaming and processing for adaptive and predictive real-time control will be integral in future manufacturing platforms increasing productivity and confidence. 3) Sustainable and future manufacturing technologies. Our approach will deliver certainty and integrity with final products at net or near net shape with reduced scrap, lower energy use, and lower CO2 emissions. Recoupling the materials science with the manufacturing science will allow us to realise the potential of current technologies and develop new home-grown manufacturing processes, to secure the prosperity of UK industry. MAPP's focused and collaborative research agenda covers emerging powder based manufacturing technologies: spark plasma sintering (SPS), freeze casting, inkjet printing, layer-by-layer manufacture, hot isostatic pressing (HIP), and laser, electron beam, and indirect additive manufacturing (AM). MAPP covers a wide range of engineering materials where powder processing has the clear potential to drive disruptive growth - including advanced ceramics, polymers, metals, with our initial applications in aerospace and energy sectors - but where common problems must be addressed.

Advanced composite materials consist of reinforcement fibres, usually carbon or glass, embedded within a matrix, usually a polymer, providing a structural material. They are very attractive to a number of user sectors, in particular transportation due to their combination of low weight and excellent material properties which can be tailored to specific applications. Components are typically manufactured either by depositing fibres into a mould and then infusing with resin (liquid moulding) or by forming and consolidation of pre-impregnated fibres (prepreg processing). The current UK composites sector has a value of £1.5 billion and is projected to grow to over £4 billion by 2020, and to between £6 billion and £12 billion by 2030. This range depends on the ability of the industry to deliver structures at required volumes and quality levels demanded by its target applications. Much of this potential growth is associated with next generation single-aisle aircraft, light-weighting of vehicles to reduce fuel consumption, and large, lightweight and durable structures for renewable energy and civil infrastructure. The benefits of lightweight composites are clear, and growth in their use would have a significant impact on both the UK's climate change and infrastructure targets, in addition to a direct impact on the economy through jobs and exports. However the challenges that must be overcome to achieve this growth are significant. For example, BMW currently manufacture around 20,000 i3 vehicles per year with significant composites content. To replace mass produced vehicles this production volume would need to increase by up to 100-times. Airbus and Boeing each produce around 10 aircraft per month (A350 and 787 respectively) with high proportions of composite materials. The next generation single aisle aircraft are likely to require volumes of 60 per month. Production costs are high relative to those associated with other materials, and will need to reduce by an order of magnitude to enable such growth levels. The Future Composites Manufacturing Hub will enable a step change in manufacturing with advanced polymer composite materials. The Hub will be led by the University of Nottingham and University of Bristol; with initial research Spokes at Cranfield, Imperial College, Manchester and Southampton; Innovation Spokes at the National Composites Centre (NCC), Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) and Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG); and backed by 18 leading companies from the composites sector. Between the Hub, Spokes and industrial partners we will offer a minimum of £12.7 million in additional support to deliver our objectives. Building on the success of the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Composites (CIMComp), the Hub will drive the development of automated manufacturing technologies that deliver components and structures for demanding applications, particularly in the aerospace, transportation, construction and energy sectors. Over a seven year period, the Hub will underpin the growth potential of the sector, by developing the underlying processing science and technology to enable Moore's law for composites: a doubling in production capability every two years. To achieve our vision we will address a number of research priorities, identified in collaboration with industry partners and the broader community, including: high rate deposition and rapid processing technologies; design for manufacture via validated simulation; manufacturing for multifunctional composites and integrated structures; inspection and in-process evaluation; recycling and re-use. Matching these priorities with UK capability, we have identified the following Grand Challenges, around which we will conduct a series of Feasibility Studies and Core Projects: -Enhance process robustness via understanding of process science -Develop high rate processing technologies for high quality structures

We will launch a new CDT, focused on composite materials and manufacturing, to deliver the next generation of composites research and technology leaders equipped with the skills to make an impact on society. In recent times, composites have been replacing traditional materials, e.g. metals, at an unprecedented rate. Global growth in their use is expected to be rapid (5-10% annually). This growth is being driven by the need to lightweight structures for which 'lighter is better', e.g. aircraft, automotive car bodywork and wind blades; and by the benefits that composites offer to functionalise both materials and structures. The drivers for lightweighting are mainly material cost, fuel efficiency, reducing emissions contributing to climate change, but also for more purely engineering reasons such as improved operational performance and functionality. For example, the UK composites sector has contributed significantly to the Airbus A400M and A350 airframes, which exhibit markedly better performance over their metallic counterparts. Similarly, in the wind energy field, typically, over 90% of a wind turbine blade comprises composites. However, given the trend towards larger rotors, weight and stiffness have become limiting factors, necessitating a greater use of carbon fibre. Advanced composites, and the possibility that they offer to add extra functionality such as shape adaptation, are enablers for lighter, smarter blades, and cheaper more abundant energy. In the automotive sector, given the push for greener cars, the need for high speed, production line-scale, manufacturing approaches will necessitate more understanding of how different materials perform. Given these developments, the UK has invested heavily in supporting the science and technology of composite materials, for instance, through the establishment of the National Composites Centre at the University of Bristol. Further investments are now required to support the skills element of the UK provision towards the composites industry and the challenges it presents. Currently, there is a recognised skills shortage in the UK's technical workforce for composites; the shortage being particularly acute for doctoral skills (30-150/year are needed). New developments within industry, such as robotic manufacture, additive manufacture, sustainability and recycling, and digital manufacturing require training that encompasses engineering as well as the physical sciences. Our CDT will supply a highly skilled workforce and technical leadership to support the industry; specifically, the leadership to bring forth new radical thinking and the innovative mind-set required to future-proof the UK's global competitiveness. The development of future composites, competing with the present resins, fibres and functional properties, as well as alternative materials, will require doctoral students to acquire underpinning knowledge of advanced materials science and engineering, and practical experience of the ensuing composites and structures. These highly skilled doctoral students will not only need to understand technical subjects but should also be able to place acquired knowledge within the context of the modern world. Our CDT will deliver this training, providing core engineering competencies, including the experimental and theoretical elements of composites engineering and science. Core engineering modules will seek to develop the students' understanding of the performance of composite materials, and how that performance might be improved. Alongside core materials, manufacturing and computational analysis training, the CDT will deliver a transferable skills training programme, e.g. communication, leadership, and translational research skills. Collaborating with industrial partners (e.g. Rolls Royce) and world-leading international expertise (e.g. University of Limerick), we will produce an exciting integrated programme enabling our students to become future leaders.

A particular aspect of polymer matrix composites is that in most cases the material structure is defined in the final stages of manufacture. This provides both advantages and challenges. Existing composites technologies are reaching maturity (e.g. Airbus A350 and Boeing 787), and new material forms are being developed to take further advantage of the opportunities that composites can offer (e.g. spatially varying properties, multi- functionality, light weight). The detailed material microstructure (e.g. final fibre paths, local fibre volume fraction and imperfections) is determined by the various processes involved in their manufacture. These details ultimately control the integrity of composite structures, however this information is not available at the early stages of conceptual design and stress analysis. This lack of suitable predictive tools means that the design of composite structures is often based on costly iterations of design, prototyping, testing and redesign. This Platform Grant will help replace some of this empiricism with fully predictive analysis capabilities. A suite of advanced composite manufacturing simulation tools will be developed, and a dedicated team of experienced researchers will be established to sustain knowledge on new simulation capabilities for new and emerging manufacturing methods. In parts made by Automated Fibre Placement (AFP) much of the tow path optimisation to improve part quality and production rate is done at the manufacturing stage. The research will develop numerical models that can accurately predict the as-manufactured geometry and fibre paths, making virtual manufacturing data available at a much earlier stage of design, ensuring parts are manufactured right-first-time with a minimum of defects. For liquid moulding technologies, it is necessary to control the deformable fibre preforms during handling, deposition, draping, infusion or high pressure injection using stabilisation techniques. However, some of these technologies are not yet widely used due to the lack of suitable modelling tools. The team will build on their extensive understanding of the compaction and consolidation processes in composite precursors, complex preforms and prepregs to devise process simulation tools that will unlock the full potential of new liquid moulding technologies. To maximise the reach of this research, the team will ensure that the simulation tools are suitable for future industrialisation. The software generated will be fully documented, optimised and robust, so that it can serve as a focal point for collaborative research with academia and industry on advanced process simulation techniques for composites. In the longer term, hybrid preforms and aligned discontinuous fibre composites will be explored. Hybrid preforms incorporate tailored metallic inserts or reinforcements (e.g. produced via additive layer manufacturing). Such technologies can only be optimised if appropriate numerical tools are available for suitable multi-material process simulation. Aligned discontinuous fibre composites based on novel manufacturing methods require new constitutive models and process simulation tools so that their complex forming characteristics, thermal distortion and final microstructure can be accurately predicted to facilitate their adoption by different industries. Working at the forefront of composites technologies, this Platform Grant stands in a highly advantageous position to step ahead of the current manufacturing paradigm, where modelling and understanding are at best catching up with the technology development, and pave the way for the manufacturing of tomorrow.