R2T2 (Rocketry, Research, Teaching & Training) is a UKSA-funded doctoral training programme dedicated to academic research in rocket propulsion, with an emphasis on the acquisition of the practical skills required to pursue a career in the launch industry. R2T2 PhD programmes are already underway at nine UK universities, and the programme overall is centred on the Westcott facility where it co-locates with the UK Race2Space programme.

Each R2T2 studentship is associated with an industrial partner active in the launch industry, and provides full funding and stipend, an extensive training programme in respect of industry-specific skills, and access to hotfire facilities at Westcott, Machrihanish, and elsewhere. Our staff will help you build and fire your first engine, and then support you in executing your own hotfire at one of our test sites such that you can obtain the data you need to complete your PhD programme. You can learn more about the programme at www.r2t2.org.uk.

In this project, the student will be based in the Aerospace Centre of Excellence (ACE) at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow in partnership with Skyrora Ltd, a leader in the development of small satellite launch vehicles, focusing on sustainability and rapid deployment, including R&D in eco-friendly fuels and advanced manufacturing processes. Given the difficulty of obtaining in-flight data regarding the rocket performance and emissions, and the narrow margins required to balance risk, reliability and cost, much of the performance predictions, which then drive the design, come from ground -based testing and computational simulations. 

This project looks at the capturing and modelling the uncertainties related to mathematical- and physics-based modelling, and those generated through on-ground testing. Quantifying both the epistemic and aleatoric uncertainties allows the designer to understand the impact on the design, and performance prediction, and to include measures of robustness into the trade-off matrix.