Dr. Shahrokh Shahpar, Associate Fellow, Aerothermal Design Systems, Rolls-Royce

Dr. Shahrokh Shahpar is a Rolls-Royce associate fellow, aerothermal design systems. He has been with the company for over 11 years, and apart from a short secondment in the compression systems business unit, he has been continuously at the aerothermal methods department in Derby, UK, part of the company’s research and technology department.

Dr. Shahrokh Shahpar talks to aerospace-technology.com about his career so far and gives advice to anyone looking to follow in his path.

What does your role involve?

I am the technical authority for a number of successful aerothermal design systems that I have written myself - for example, ‘SOPHY’, which is an automatic design optimisation system that can be used to improve the aerothermal, aeroacoustic or aeromechanical performance of turbomachinery components. Different aspects of the design system are used by internal customers in the business units that design specific component groupings (eg turbines).

My day-to-day job is varied: roughly a quarter of my time is spent supporting existing software, while another quarter is spent interacting with our network of university technology centres that undertake core research for us in areas like combustion, aeroelasticity and CFD.

A third quarter is spent on internal work, such as writing software to enhance the current design system, which again links in to customer requirements. The last part - and one that I particularly enjoy - is supervising young graduates and industrial trainees as well as a couple of engineers in my SOPHY team.

What project are you currently working on?

At any time I’ll be working on a number of parallel design system projects, for use at various business units, not just in the UK (at Derby and Bristol primarily) but also at our facilities in Germany, Scandinavia and North America that are developing our latest products.

Where did you start your career?

From an early age I was passionate about aircraft and aerospace engineering, and as a child I used to make model aircraft, so it’s perhaps not surprising that I went to Manchester University to study aeronautical engineering. There I obtained a first class honours degree and won prizes for the best student on the degree course and the best final year project.

I subsequently carried out research into hypersonic flows including real gas effects, which led to a PhD. My research was sponsored by British Aerospace, which in the late 80s was investigating a reusable launch vehicle called HOTOL (Horizontal Landing and Take Off Launch Vehicle), which incorporated a revolutionary hybrid engine. I also carried out research at Manchester on aerothermal topics, but related to external devices such as wings, and attained their highest rank of research fellow.

How has your career evolved? Where are you headed from here?

Having worked on CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) algorithms for a number of years, my Rolls-Royce career was more involved with applying CFD to design better engine components and that really appealed to me.

As part of my early work here, I developed an inverse design technique, whereby engineers define the flow field they are after and the geometry is obtained almost automatically. This naturally led on to optimisation techniques where a global optimum, or a robust design is the aim in a multi-disciplinary design environment.

I have published widely in this field, and also figured in the Rolls-Royce Chairman's Awards for Innovation a number of times.

Today, I also serve voluntarily on the advisory board of a number of aerospace engineering departments in the UK and give lectures to MSc students at various UK universities.

I progressed through various technology ladders quite quickly, and reached the top specialist role in seven years, earning the associate fellow title as recognition of the impact I have made on a number of projects related to the Trent engine family and my national reputation on CFD-based optimisation.

I guess in terms of career progress, the ultimate highest rank would be as a Rolls-Royce fellow, which would mean I was internationally recognised in my field.

What challenges did you face entering this industry, and how did you overcome them?

Although already a CFD specialist, before coming to Rolls-Royce I had never worked on turbomachinery projects before, so I needed to adapt to the new design space and vast breadth of terminologies used in Rolls-Royce very quickly ... adding to them myself over the years with acronyms such as SOPHY (which actually stands for SOft-Padram-Hydra, to reflect three different codes that make up an integrated design system).

I’ve read many papers related to gas turbine design and attended many conferences relevant to the subjects I work on. Interaction with my colleagues has always been extremely valuable.

What do you like most about your job?

I love every aspect of it, but two things stand out - firstly the problem solving challenges I face almost on daily basis, and secondly working with young very talented people I come across and supervise.

What are the negatives (if any) or challenges with your job, and how do you deal with them?

Aerospace is a very cyclical business, and sometimes this makes long term planning difficult. A related problem is that required delivery rates are much faster than let’s say in academia, where I have nostalgic memories of research that could be conducted over years rather than months – something that allowed us to take more risks and explore different avenues in more depth.

Nowadays, that sort of 'blue sky' research is done with the UTCS or with the industrial trainees in-house.

What advice would you give for people looking to work in a role such as yours?

Work hard, be flexible and, in particular, be enthusiastic about the job. For me, being good at maths has helped, of course, but I feel I’m neither a mathematician nor a computer scientist but an 'engineer' at heart, and being an aerospace engineer is what's set the foundation for everything I have done.

A good engineering degree is, I feel, the backbone of a successful career, and I would also encourage young students and graduates to consider coming for short industrial attachments (for example, in the summer months or to carry out their third year degree projects).

I would welcome students contacting me if they wish to investigate the possibility of coming to Rolls-Royce to work and learn about aerothermal methods.