I am a Senior Teaching Fellow in the Department of Aeronautics at Imperial College London. My main activity is module lead for the Engineering Practice 1 module, in which I teach practical engineering and design to classes of up to 170 undergraduates throughout their first year. Students on the module have engaged in disassembling, rebuilding (and test driving) small-scale piston-engined racing cars, re-engineering radio-controlled electric off-road trucks into planetary rovers and urban electric vehicles, and designing, building and testing small wind turbines as personal power devices.

Recent final-year projects I have supervised include:

* Testing a small scale supersonic impulse turbine for liquid fuelled rocket applications.
* Computational and experimental development of an avalanche breathing device.
* Experimental evaluation of drag reduction via boundary layer cooling.
* Design, build and test of a low-cost assistive knee brace.
* Computational and experimental development of a helmet with air filtration.
* Experimental development of increased-bandwidth of thermocouple probes for turbomachinery applications.
* Small-scale wind-tunnel testing of the ThrustWSH water speed record boat.

Note to students: I am happy to supervise self-proposed student projects that align with my research interests. Please drop me an email well in advance of the FYP project selection deadline.

Research background

My research background is in experimental gas turbine aero-thermodynamics and heat transfer: specifically velocity- and temperature- turbulence characterisation and short-duration temperature and pressure measurements in gas turbine combustion chambers, afterburners and other high-enthalpy test facilities.

Prior to joining Imperial I worked in the High-Speed Turbomachinery Group at the Oxford Thermofluids Institute, carrying out research in experimental combustor simulator development and high-pressure nozzle guide vane capacity, aerodynamic loss and heat transfer measurement for high-bypass civilian aero engines including the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 and Trent XWB, which power the Airbus A380 and A350-XWB respectively.

As part of my research I worked on large-scale turbomachinery combustion experiments at Rolls-Royce, Derby, Qinetiq, Shoeburyness, Volvo Aero (now GKN Aerospace Engine Systems) in Trollhättan, Sweden and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Takasago, Japan. I have also been involved with the design and development of large-scale high-speed (transient) experimental research facilities for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries power gas turbines and Rolls-Royce aero-engines.

Prior to teaching at Imperial College I held a Stipendiary Lectureship at Pembroke College, Oxford where I taught thermofluids, electromagnetism and mathematics to first and second year undergraduates from 2009 until 2022.

I obtained my BSc in Physics from Imperial College London followed by an MSc in Mechanical Engineering, also at Imperial. I then went on to do a D.Phil in Engineering Science at Oxford University under Prof. Martin Oldfield.

Since joining Imperial I have also completed a Postgraduate Diploma in University Teaching and Learning, and I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

My current research activities include small scale turbomachinery, flow measurement techniques, and design of human assistive technologies such as sports equipment and orthopaedic devices.

Publications

Amend, J., Lubbock, R., Ornano, F., and Povey, T., 2023, "Lean-Burn Combustor Simulator for an Engine-Component Test Facility: An Experimental and Computational Study." ASME. J. Turbomach. June 2023; 145(6): 061014. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4056387

Burdett, D., Lubbock, R., and Povey, T., 2018, “An Impulse Response Technique to Improve the Effective Frequency Response of Pressure Probes,” Proceedings of the XXIV Biannual Symposium on Measuring Techniques in Turbomachinery Transonic and Supersonic Flow in Cascades and Turbomachines, MTT - Measuring Techniques in Turbomachinery, Prague, Czech Republic.

Lubbock, R., Luque, S., Rosic, B., 2018. “A new transient high heat flux convection calibration facility for heat transfer gauges in high enthalpy flows”, ASME. J. Heat transfer, Apr 2018, 140(4): 041701 (10 pages).

Lubbock R, and Oldfield M., 2018 “Turbulent velocity and pressure fluctuations in gas turbine combustor exit flows”, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part A: Journal of Power and Energy. 2018; 232(4):337-349.

Kirollos, B., Lubbock, R., Beard, P., Goenaga, F., Rawlinson, A., Janke, E., and Povey, T., 2017. “ECAT: An Engine Component Aerothermal Facility at the University of Oxford”. In Proceedings of the ASME Turbo Expo 2017, North Carolina, USA, June 26-30. GT2017-64736.

Lubbock, R.J., Luque, S. and Rosic, B.R., 2014. “Transient convection calibration of heat transfer gauges for high enthalpy flows”, XXII Symposium on Measuring Techniques in Turbomachinery, Transonic and Supersonic Flow in Cascades and Turbomachines, Lyon, France, 4 - 5 September 2014.

Lubbock, R.J., 2014. “Turbulent Velocity and Temperature Measurements in Gas Turbine Hot Sections”, D.Phil. Thesis, University of Oxford.

Luque, S., Kanjirakkad, V., Aslanidou, I., Lubbock, R., Rosic, B., Uchida, S, 2014. “A new experimental facility to investigate combustor-turbine interactions in gas turbines with multiple can combustors”, ASME J. Eng. Gas Turbines Power 137(5), p. 051503 (Paper No: GTP-14-1316).

Lubbock, R.J., and Oldfield, M.L.G., 2011. “High frequency pressure measurements with an uncooled fast insertion probe at turbine exit in a turbojet engine”, Proceedings of ASME Turbo Expo 2011 GT2011 June 6-10, 2011, Vancouver, Canada. GT2011-45318.

Lubbock, R.J., and Oldfield, M.L.G., 2010. “Fast Response Instrumentation for Gas Turbine Flow Measurements”, Experimental methods for health monitoring of fluid systems, 22nd April 2010, Institution of Mechanical Engineers, One Birdcage Walk, London SW1H 9JJ

Oldfield, M.L.G. and Lubbock, R.J., 2009. “Fast insertion pressure and temperature probes”, VKI Lecture Series on Advanced High Temperature Instrumentation for Gas Turbine Applications, May 11-14, 2009, Rhode-Saint-Genèse, Belgium.

Lubbock R.J. and Oldfield, M.L.G., 2008. “Unsteady gas turbine flow measurements”, 2nd Joint EVI-GTI / PIWG International Gas Turbine Instrumentation Conference, September 24-26, Seville, Spain.