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Silver medal for Rolls-Royce's Gallimore

A Royal Academy of Engineering product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Jun 1, 2006

Dr Simon Gallimore is to receive the Royal Academy of Engineering's Silver Medal for his outstanding contribution to British engineering and commercial development.

Dr Simon Gallimore, a renowned authority in compressor and turbine aerodynamics, is to receive the Royal Academy of Engineering's Silver Medal for his outstanding contribution to British engineering and commercial development.

As Chief of Turbine Thermofluids Systems Engineering at Rolls-Royce, Dr Gallimore's personal contribution to Rolls-Royce products has helped the company to become a world leader in engine manufacture.

"Simon is recognised as world-class in the field of turbomachinery aerodynamics and computational fluid dynamics".

says nominating Fellow Colin Smith, Director of Engineering and Technology at Rolls-Royce.

"He has always been an innovator, driving new technology, based on his sound understanding of the fundamental physics of airflow coupled with a pragmatic view of computing and physical limitations".

"In particular, his expertise in aerodynamics has played a critical role in the success of all Trent marks of engine, enabling the series to grow the company's wide body aircraft share from less than 20% to 50% - with a firm order value for installed engines of $23.4 billion".

Dr Gallimore's career at Rolls-Royce started in 1977 as an undergraduate apprentice.

Breaking off only to complete his PhD at the Whittle Laboratory in Cambridge, his career at Rolls-Royce has been marked by a raft of achievements in innovative engine design and an unusually rapid progression to a position of technical leadership in his chosen specialist field.

Within a few years of completing his PhD, Dr Gallimore was making significant contributions to engine designs such as the V2500 high pressure compressor (HPC).

He subsequently led the aerodynamic design of the intermediate pressure compressor (IPC) for the Trent 700 engine and his design optimisation of the last blade row of the HPC of this engine improved efficiency by such a margin that they have formed the basis of all subsequent Trent engine designs.

Dr Gallimore was instrumental in introducing multi-stage 3D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) design practice for compressors at Rolls-Royce.

Reducing the internal aerodynamic losses of the gas turbine is fundamental to reducing engine fuel consumption and emissions, and therefore improving the economics of aircraft operation.

The new design practices achieved combined efficiency gains for both high pressure and intermediate pressure compressors of a full 1% - representing an increased revenue of $300,000 per aircraft, per annum.

By 1995, and at an early age, he had become the company-wide technical co-ordinator for multistage compressor aerodynamics and was appointed as Chief Aerodynamic Specialist for compressors.

In 2001 he was appointed as Chief of Turbine Aerothermal Technology and just two years later, achieved the distinguished position of Rolls-Royce Engineering Fellow.

His career continues to pioneer advanced techniques for aerodynamic designs and analysis of compressors and turbines, and he is expected to successfully apply these across the range of Rolls-Royce products.

Dr Gallimore will receive his Silver Medal, which is only awarded to engineers aged under 50, at the Academy's Awards Dinner in London on 5th June 2006.