Prof Chris Smith graduated from the University of Leeds in 1992 and again with PhD in 1995. He started his career at the University of Exeter in 1996, becoming lecturer in 2000, and Professor of Mechanical Engineering in 2020.
Prof Chris Smith leads the Centre for Future Clean Mobility at the University of Exeter. He has developed a team which specialises in development of new simulation tools for optimised design of zero emissions powertrains, facing the maritime, defence, rail and off-highway sectors. There are a number of vessels and vehicles in operation which utilise powertrains designed, assembled and tested in part by the Centre, e.g. small ferries, a MEWP, a roadsweeper, and the eATMP (Supacat). The centre has a unique dedicated dynamometer (up to 0.9 MW) for testing of clean powertrains, with a range of fuel cell, batteries motors and other components for use.
The Centre’s approach is to simulate powertrains, working minute by minute through measured duty cycles, and use an AI to drive optimisation of both powertrain hardware configurations and control strategies. This leads to cost minimisation and compliance with weight size or dimension constraints. Most of the Centre’s projects are collaborative with businesses, and often those leading in their sectors. They are able to assemble and test such powertrains along with build of bespoke control systems.
Prof Smith is also interested in simulation cost reduction (e.g. surrogates, emulators, and model order reduction), multiphysics problems, novel simulation methods incl contact problems and vibration damping. He spent several years supported by Rolls-Royce working on such problems.
