University of Strathclyde

Overview
Based in the heart of Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city, the University of Strathclyde is winner of the Times Higher Education UK University of the Year 2019 and The Sunday Times Scottish University of the Year 2020. The University continues to take bold steps in transforming its approach to working with business, industry and government to make a positive impact on the local and global community it serves.
Strathclyde is a socially progressive, leading international technological University, inspired by its Age of Enlightenment founder’s vision of a ‘place of useful learning’. Together with its partners, it has developed shared clusters of research capability in high-growth areas, including Health Technology, Quantum, Space, 5G, Industrial Informatics and FinTech. Strathclyde is the anchor university for the National Manufacturing Institute of Scotland, a centre of expertise to help position the UK as a global leader in advanced manufacturing.
Research
Strathclyde is home to world-class researchers who address local, societal and global challenges.
Research is of central importance to everything the University does. It informs teaching and helps make a difference to business, industry and society as a whole. Strathclyde is in the UK’s top 20 universities for research intensity, according to the Times Higher Education’s analysis of REF (Research Excellence Framework) 2014. 
Strathclyde’s leading-edge research and close links with business, industry and public sector organisations make it the university of choice for a growing number of doctoral researchers. Collaborative, interdisciplinary approaches and the desire to create an impact are key drivers at the core of Strathclyde’s research strategy, which is embedded in all its doctoral programmes. Strathclyde’s research programmes showcase its focus on relevance and usefulness, through impact on industry, science and society.
Glasgow City Innovation District
Strathclyde, in partnership with Glasgow City Council, Scottish Enterprise, Glasgow Chamber of Commerce and Entrepreneurial Scotland has established Scotland’s first innovation district as a hub for entrepreneurship, innovation and collaboration, bringing together ambitious, forward-thinking people to tackle societal and global challenges and drive inclusive economic growth.
Technology &amp; Innovation Centre Zone
At the core of the Glasgow City Innovation District, the Technology &amp; Innovation Centre (TIC) zone, sited within the University of Strathclyde, has a high concentration of innovative organisations, including UK Catapult Centres, Scottish Funding Council Innovation Centres and the UK’s first Fraunhofer Institute.
In the TIC Zone, Strathclyde is transforming the way academics, business, industry and the public sector work in partnership. They are working together to find solutions to significant challenges in areas of economic importance.
The Innovation and Industry Engagement Directorate is at the centre of Strathclyde’s strategic commitment to delivering global economic and societal impact. Working with entrepreneurs, academics and external business partners, the aim is to support the formation and growth of commercial opportunities and to facilitate new partnerships between these communities.

<h1 id="background">Background</h1>
This invention is a new thermal buoyancy engine used in underwater gliders. This engine uses phase changing material to create a volume change using the changing temperature in the ocean, so that to produce a buoyancy change to drive the gliders. However, the current thermal buoyancy engine is limited by its capacity. But because the need of buoyancy change is not so significant for the current underwater glider, there is no great need to develop a large capacity thermal buoyancy engine.
Whereas in Strathclyde, the researchers are aiming to develop a self-sustainable underwater glider which can harvest the kinetic energy by diving and surfacing, where the power output is directly related to the buoyancy change capacity. Therefore, the need of large capacity thermal buoyancy engine is urgent and not available off-the-shelf.
<h1 id="technology-overview">Technology Overview</h1>
This invention is a new type of thermal buoyancy engine enhanced by using a single-acting cylinder in addition to a double-acting cylinder to amplify the buoyancy change capacity for self-sustainable underwater gliders (<img src="https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/assets.in-part.com/figures/XPcJb3hfR6iml6ZrArVX_Picture%201.png" alt="Figure 1" />). With the same amount of Phase Changing Material (PCM), the new buoyancy engine equipped with the buoyancy amplifier can amplify the buoyancy change, therefore to increase the electricity output to sustain the glider operation. The new thermal buoyancy engine will also enhance underwater gliders’ performance, by improving the gliding speed and enhancing the survivability and the endurance.
The research team in the University of Strathclyde develops the technology by aiming to use their expertise in the marine hydrodynamics and develop the cutting-edge applicable biomimetic technologies to enhance the performance of marine devices. The mission of the research group is to understand the need for development in marine industry so that to get inspired from the Mother Nature and to develop technology to address the challenges.
<h1 id="benefits">Benefits</h1>
<ul>
<li>Solve the problems of the traditional thermal buoyancy engine<ul>
<li>Increase the payload capacity of existing AUV.</li>
<li>Improve the environment adaptability of existing underwater glider.</li>
<li>Enhance the gliding speed so that to enhance the operation efficiency.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Make a new type power generation system feasible and increase the voyage<ul>
<li>A new type power generation unit and gliding strategy developed.</li>
<li>This power generation system is more reliable because most of the units are not working in high pressure.</li>
<li>The rotor can be used both as a propeller to propel the underwater glider and as a turbine to harvest the kinetic energy.</li>
<li>The power output estimation of the power generation unit.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
After applying the new type thermal engine, the preliminary math model shows without increasing the mass requirement of PCM the power output peaks at 20+w in the power generation mode.