Luke Edward Muscutt

Imperial College London | Imperial · Department of Mechanical Engineering

Blade off events in an aero engine are one of the most critical failures, since they can lead to significant damage to the engine, and if not managed correctly, lead to uncontained failure. During development programs detailed simulations are conducted to understand the dynamic response of bladed discs and blisks in operation, to prevent blade off...

One of the main challenges when designing aero engines is their high sensitivity to vibration, which can lead to a loss of performance, increased maintenance requirements and in the worst case a catastrophic failure of the engine. The Holistic Engine Rotor MEasurement System (HERMES) was designed and installed in the Dynamics Lab at Imperial Colleg...

Long flexible shafts with bladed discs are a fundamental component of any gas turbine, and as such have been investigated in detail for many decades. With the emergence of the next generation of gas turbines, with shorter, stiffer shafts, and larger and more three-dimensional blades, current understanding of the underlying physical phenomena will n...

Rolling-element bearings are used extensively to support shafts in rotating machines due to their low friction and high load capacities. They are known to be inherently nonlinear in nature due to clearance and stiffening nonlinearities, which depend on many parameters which are difficult to quantify, such as the radial clearance. As a result, the n...

Underwater vehicles are increasingly important tools for use in science and engineering, but maneuverability and mission life seem to be mutually exclusive goals. Inspired by the unique swimming method of the plesiosaur, which used four flippers of essentially equal size and musculature, we analyzed designed and built an underwater vehicle with the...

The propulsive performance of a pair of tandem flapping foils is sensitively dependent on the spacing and phasing between them. Large increases in thrust and efficiency of the hind foil are possible, but the mechanisms governing these enhancements remain largely unresolved. Two-dimensional numerical simulations of tandem and single foils oscillatin...

The extinct ocean-going plesiosaurs were unique within vertebrates because they used two flipper pairs identical in morphology for propulsion. Although fossils of these Mesozoic marine reptiles have been known for more than two centuries, the function and dynamics of their tandem-flipper propulsion system has always been unclear and controversial....

When the dinosaurs were walking on the earth, there was a marine reptile called a plesiosaur that was swimming in the seas. Plesiosaurs are unique in the animal kingdom because they had four large flippers with which they used to swim, but exactly how they used them has been controversial for almost 200 years. Debate has included 1) whether plesios...

The aim of this article is to provide a theoretical basis upon which to advance and deploy novel tandem flapping foil systems for efficient marine propulsion. We put forth three key insights into tandem flapping foil hydrodynamics related to their choreography, propulsive efficiency, and unsteady loading. In particular, we propose that the performa...