–
Co-inventor is an experimental physicist with wide experience
of making things work; wartime microwave radar which controlled
the Dover guns, innovative experiments in particle physics at
CERN and Brookhaven and new wave energy devices. He is a fellow
of the Royal Society which awarded him the Hughes medal. Francis
has worked on wave energy since 1976 and has filed 14 patents
in this area. He initially developed the Triplate (Farley et
al., 1978; Altmann & Farley, 1979), which was funded by
ETSU. Whereas model tests showed excellent performance, full-scale
design by consulting engineers proved it to be too costly and
the project was shelved. He then moved on to attenuators. Farley
developed the mathematics of a buckling beam floating on water
and discovered that, independent of length, it buckles at a
preferred wavelength. This can be set equal to the wavelength
in the sea, with the result that a large resonant oscillation
is excited. Model tests confirmed the concept (Farley, 1981,
1982; Farley et al., 1981) and showed good capture width. The
idea was later taken up by Wavegen Ltd under the name Hydra,
but again engineering problems led to abandonment. An alternative
design (Farley & Rainey, 2006) with an internal tension
cable could prove more attractive. Meanwhile Ocean Power Delivery
(Now Pelamis Wave Power) realised that by forcing the beam to
vibrate at a steep angle to the vertical, the restoring effect
of gravity would be reduced, and it could be made to resonate
with the waves without a compressive cable. This concept has
led to Pelamis.
– Co-inventor
is Head of Floating Structures at WS Atkins Oil and Gas Division.
Rod is one of the UK’s leading experts on floating offshore
structures, and has a unique combination of practical and theoretical
know-how in this field. He has been employed by WS Atkins for
over thirty years. Prior to this, he was employed by Yarrow
Shipbuilders and was a research fellow at Imperial College.
He is an internationally recognised authority in the field of
hydrodynamic loading, and hosted the International Workshop
on Water Waves and Floating Bodies, at Peterhouse, Cambridge.
He has published extensively in the international technical
literature, with well-known publications on wave loading, freak
waves, and wave energy converters. Rod is a visiting professor
at University College London and at Southampton University.
He is also a recognised expert witness in the London Courts,
on all aspects of marine structures.
trained as a chemist and has worked in both
technical and managerial roles in the rubber industry for over
30 years. His role as project manager for the Anaconda Proof
of Concept Project is in addition to being responsible for rubber
compound characterisation, optimisation and testing. As well
having extensive knowledge of materials, Steve is also an experienced
production engineer. His experience extends to hands on knowledge
of all operational roles including demand management using MRP
II principles, Production, Quality Assurance, Technical Support
for Manufacturing , as well as sales and customer service for
a global business. He is trained as a Six Sigma Black belt and
lean manufacturing practitioner.
is Technical Manager of Avon
Fabrications and brings to the Anaconda project his unequalled
knowledge of rubber fabrication and flexible structures as well
as his experience of mechanical and structural design. From
the early days of hovercraft skirt building with Saunders Roe
some 35 years ago, Mark has been involved in the mechanics of
flexible structures and their manufacture as well as material
development.
Whilst serving in the Armed Forces Tom was
trained in project management at the Army Staff College and
the Royal Military College of Science. His experience includes
the management of large defence equipment projects and weapons
system trials. On leaving the Forces he worked for five years
in project management with HVR Consulting Services Ltd, a specialist
company providing project management expertise to the MOD and
others running major engineering projects. HVR is now part of
Qinetiq plc. Tom has led Avon Fabrications for the past 6 years,
is a director of Checkmate Seaenergy and has overall responsibility
for the Anaconda project.
We are also very pleased
to be associated with
who is leader of the recently approved EPSRC funded study (more
info available here) into bulge
wave excitation which is sponsored by us and WS Atkins. John
has carried out experimental research on water waves and wave/structure
interaction since the mid-1970s.
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