Areas of expertise
- Air Transport Safety & Investigation
- Aircraft Design
- Test and Evaluation
- Electric and Hybrid Vehicles
- Engines, Powertrains & Alternative Fuels
- Lightweighting & Crashworthiness
- Aerospace Materials
- Off-Road Vehicle Engineering
- On-Road Vehicle Dynamics
- Soil Resources
- Space Systems
- Low Carbon Technology
- Vehicle Engineering & Mobility
Background
Prof. James Brighton has over 22 years' experience relating to off road vehicle dynamics, terra-mechanics, tyre and track system modelling, advanced vehicle instrumentation and lightweight material structures and his current clients span the globe. He is responsible for the Cranfield Off Road Dynamics Facility, which he designed and managed the delivery of together with its unique suite of research machines in collaboration with his colleagues within his previous Centre for Automotive Technology. The facility won the Henry Ford Technical achievement award in 2007. His team is able to offer a wide range of vehicle related technical solutions from fundamental research through product design and prototype vehicle sub-system manufacture, supply, evaluation and testing across a wide range of industry sectors.
Fellow of the Institution of Agricultural Engineers (FIAgrE)
EngD Cranfield University
BEng (Hons) Silsoe College
ND Analytical Rycotewood College.
Current activities
Prof. James Brighton manages the Advanced Vehicle Engineering Centre and specialises in applied research, design, development and postgraduate teaching in relation to advanced vehicle technology for off road and race circuit environments together with the development of novel light-weight materials and associated nanotechnology.
The applications of this research are broad and include automobiles, sports utility vehicles (SUVs), motorcycles, competition vehicles, heavy goods vehicles, low carbon vehicles (LCVs), agricultural machinery, industrial machinery, military vehicles, space vehicles, marine vessels, air and landing craft. The Centre also manages and delivers the IMechE, RAeS and IET accredited MSc in Advanced Motorsport Engineering, the MSc in Automotive Engineering, MSc in Automotive Mechatronics and allied short courses, for which Prof Brighton teaches Motorsport Vehicle Dynamics. He was involved in the EU funded research projects ECOshell, InnoREX, Sirena, and FutureSKY, and the Innovate funded CarBIO, HumanDRIVE and AidCAV programs, and has just concluded the EPSRC funded CogSHIFT program with Jaguar Land Rover. He is currently working on the ATi funded LLGF program, the Innovate funded CargoPOD program and is actively building and seeking consortia for H2020 and Innovate UK calls.
Key areas of activity include off-road and Autonomous vehicle dynamics and development, off-road environment simulation, tyre characterisation and modelling, vehicle efficiency, motorsport engineering and management, terra-mechanics, vehicle light-weighting and novel materials, including nano and hybrid composites, agricultural engineering and off road environment measurement.
Clients
Airbus
Messier Bugatti Dowty
Dunlop
Jaguar Land Rover
Nissan
Yamaha (GP team)
Millbrook Proving Ground
DSTL
QinetiQ
Claas GmbH
MSport
Redbull Technology
Caterpillar
Cammoplast
Singapore Technologies Marine
Michelin (America)
Soil Machine Dynamics Ltd.
AAIB
BEA
Astrium
European Space Agency
Scania
PMC Harvesters
Automotive Research Center (USA)
Mahle
Rolls-Royce
Eaton
Safran Landing systems
Halon
Publications
Articles In Journals
- Rijns S, Teschner T-R, Blackburn K, Siampis E & Brighton J. (2025). Optimising vehicle performance with advanced active aerodynamic systems. Vehicle System Dynamics, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print)
- Rijns S, Teschner T-R, Blackburn K & Brighton J. (2024). Integrated numerical and experimental workflow for high-performance vehicle aerodynamics. SAE Technical Paper Series, 1
- Rijns S, Teschner T-R, Blackburn K, Ramos Proenca A & Brighton J. (2024). Experimental and numerical investigation of the aerodynamic characteristics of high-performance vehicle configurations under yaw conditions. Physics of Fluids, 36(4)
- Rijns S, Teschner T-R, Blackburn K & Brighton J. (2024). Effects of cornering conditions on the aerodynamic characteristics of a high-performance vehicle and its rear wing. Physics of Fluids, 36(4)
- Rijns S, Teschner T-R, Blackburn K & Brighton J. (2024). Performance analyses of active aerodynamic load balancing designs on high-performance vehicles in cornering conditions. Physics of Fluids, 36(8)
- Grasso M, Bai Y, Brighton J, Carless O & St Leger-Harris C. (2023). Numerical simulation of plasticity in double lap metallic bolted joints. Mechanics Based Design of Structures and Machines, 52(4)
- Gucci F, Grasso M, Shaw C, Leighton G & Marchante Rodriguez V. (2023). PEO-based polymer blend electrolyte for composite structural battery. Polymer-Plastics Technology and Materials, 62(8)
- Ramji A, Grasso M, Chase J, Maqbool H, Krypciak M, .... (2023). Implementation of a finite element modelling strategy for the prediction of aircraft tyre response. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G: Journal of Aerospace Engineering, 237(12)
- Gucci F, Grasso M, Russo S, Leighton GJT, Shaw C, .... (2023). Electrical and mechanical characterisation of poly(ethylene)oxide-polysulfone blend for composite structural lithium batteries. Polymers, 15(11)
- Grasso M, Robinson M, Chaffey BC, Mortimer P & Brighton J. (2023). Innovative pultruded composite mast design for railway overhead line structures. Designs, 7(3)
- Lin P-S, Le Roux de Bretagne O, Grasso M, Brighton J, StLeger-Harris C, .... (2023). Comparative analysis of various hyperelastic models and element types for finite element analysis. Designs, 7(6)
- Rijns S, Teschner T-R, Blackburn K & Brighton J. (2023). Aerodynamic Analysis of the Ride Height Dependency of a High-Performance Vehicle Equipped with a Multichannel Diffuser in Ground Effect. SAE Technical Paper Series, 1
- Lawson NJ, Blackburn K, Sherwood G, Brighton J & Atkinson HV. (2022). Flow visualization and particle dispersion measurements inside an ambulance rear saloon while stationary and in motion. SAE International Journal of Commercial Vehicles, 15(4)
- Shateri N, Auger DJ, Fotouhi A, Brighton J, Du W, .... (2022). Investigation of the effect of temperature on lithium-sulfur cell cycle life performance using system identification and x-ray tomography. Batteries & Supercaps, 5(8)
- Shateri N, Auger DJ, Fotouhi A & Brighton J. (2022). Charging characterization of a high‐capacity lithium‐sulfur pouch cell for state estimation–an experimental approach. Energy Storage, 5(3)
- Shateri N, Auger DJ, Fotouhi A, Brighton J, Du W, .... (2022). Cover Feature: Investigation of the Effect of Temperature on Lithium‐Sulfur Cell Cycle Life Performance Using System Identification and X‐Ray Tomography (Batteries & Supercaps 8/2022). Batteries & Supercaps, 5(8)
- Shateri N, Auger DJ, Fotouhi A & Brighton J. (2021). An experimental study on prototype lithium-sulfur cells for ageing analysis and state-of-health estimation. IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification, 7(3)
- Yang L, Dong K, Ding Y, Brighton J, Zhan Z, .... (2021). Recognition of visual-related non-driving activities using a dual-camera monitoring system. Pattern Recognition, 116(August)
- Yang L, Shan X, Lv C, Brighton J & Zhao Y. (2021). Learning spatio-temporal representations with a dual-stream 3-D residual network for nondriving activity recognition. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 69(7)
- Yang L, Semiromi MB, Xing Y, Lv C, Brighton J, .... (2021). The identification of non-driving activities with associated implication on the take-over process. Sensors, 22(1)
- Yang L, Yang T, Liu H, Shan X, Brighton J, .... (2020). A refined non-driving activity classification using a two-stream convolutional neural network. IEEE Sensors Journal, 21(14)
- Krishnaswamy S, Marchante V, Abhyankar H, Huang Z & Brighton J. (2019). Non-isothermal cure kinetics of aerogel/epoxy composites using differential scanning calorimetry. Polymer-Plastics Technology and Materials, 58(16)
- Krishnaswamy S, Abhyankar H, Marchante V, Huang Z & Brighton J. (2019). Aerogel/epoxy thermal coatings for carbon fibre reinforced plastic substrates. Journal of Adhesion Science and Technology, 33(6)
- Yang L, Dong K, Dmitruk AJ, Brighton J & Zhao Y. (2019). A dual-cameras-based driver gaze mapping system with an application on non-driving activities monitoring. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, 21(10)
- Xie S, Hu X, Qi S, Tang X, Lang K, .... (2019). Model predictive energy management for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles considering optimal battery depth of discharge. Energy, 173
- Krishnaswamy S, Bhattacharyya D, Abhyankar H, Marchante Rodriguez V, Huang Z, .... (2018). Morphological, optical and thermal characterisation of aerogel-epoxy composites for enhanced thermal insulation. Journal of Composite Materials, 53(7)
- Xie S, Hu X, Xin Z & Brighton JL. (2018). Pontryagin's Minimum Principle based model predictive control of energy management for a plug-in hybrid electric bus. Applied Energy, 236
- Dubey SP, Abhyankar H, Marchante V, Brighton JL, Bergmann B, .... (2017). Microwave energy assisted synthesis of poly lactic acid via continuous reactive extrusion: modelling of reaction kinetics. RSC Advances, 7(30)
- Dubey SP, Abhyankar H, Marchante V, Brighton JL, Blackburn K, .... (2016). Modelling and validation of synthesis of poly lactic acid using an alternative energy source through a continuous reactive extrusion process. Polymers, 8(4)
- Dubey SP, Abhyankar H, Marchante V, Brighton J & Blackburn K. (2016). Chronological review of the catalytic progress of polylactic acid formation through ring opening polymerization. International Research Journal of Pure and Applied Chemistry, 12(3)
- Gendre L, Marchante V, Abhyankar H, Blackburn K, Temple C, .... (2016). Development of CNC prototype for the characterization of the nanoparticle release during physical manipulation of nanocomposites. Journal of Environmental Science and Health, Part A, 51(6)
- Zhu J, Zhu H, Immonen K, Brighton J & Abhyankar H. (2015). Improving mechanical properties of novel flax/tannin composites through different chemical treatments. Industrial Crops and Products, 67
- Zhu J, Immonen K, Avril C, Brighton J, Zhu H, .... (2015). Novel hybrid flax reinforced supersap composites in automotive applications. Fibers, 3(1)
- Misiewicz PA, Blackburn K, Richards TE, Brighton JL & Godwin R. (2015). The evaluation and calibration of pressure mapping system for the measurement of the pressure distribution of agricultural tyres. Biosystems Engineering, 130
- Gendre L, Blackburn K, Brighton J, Marchante Rodriguez V & Abhyankar H. (2014). Nanomaterials life cycle analysis: health and safety practices, standards and regulations – past, present and future perspective. International Research Journal of Pure and Applied Chemistry, 5(3)
- Dimitriadis CI, Brighton JL, O’Dogherty MJ, Kokkora MI & Darras AI. (2014). Physical and Aerodynamic Properties of Lavender in relation to Harvest Mechanisation. International Journal of Agronomy, 2014(1)
- Dimitriadis CI & Brighton JL. (2010). THE DESIGN OF A MECHANICAL SYSTEM FOR THE HARVEST OF SAFFRON PLANTS IN GREECE. Acta Horticulturae, 850(850)
- O’Dogherty MJ, Godwin RJ, Dedousis AP, Brighton JL & Tillett ND. (2007). A Mathematical Model of the Kinematics of a Rotating Disc for Inter- and Intra-row Hoeing. Biosystems Engineering, 96(2)
- Riddlestone S, Stott E, Blackburn K & Brighton J. (2006). A Technical and Economic Feasibility Study of Green Decortication of Hemp Fibre for Textile Uses. Journal of Industrial Hemp, 11(2)
