Engineering Flood Resilience with Whitehouse and Derby

Project overview

The Flood Resilience project focused on researching, developing, and commercialising new products for the property flood resilience (PFR) market, with the aim of raising industry standards and addressing increasing flood risks. The project combined material science research, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), finite element analysis (FEA), and computer-aided design (CAD) to create high-quality, rigorously tested products that can achieve BSI Kitemark approval.

By embedding advanced R&D processes and academic expertise into Whitehouse Construction's operations, the knowledge transfer partnership is enabling the company to fast-track product development while ensuring designs are scientifically validated, sustainable, and commercially viable.

Objectives

• Develop intelligently designed flood mitigation products that minimise the economic damage caused by increasingly frequent flood events.
• Ensure all new products are compliant with British Standards and suitable for BSI Kitemark approval, raising quality across the emerging PFR industry.
• Build a strong and holistic portfolio of property flood resilience (PFR) products to address market needs and combat poor-quality, substandard alternatives.
• Utilise material science research, computer-aided design (CAD), and fluid simulation studies (CFD & FEA) to design, test, and validate products efficiently and scientifically.
• Position Whitehouse Construction as a market leader in PFR innovation, capable of delivering effective, scalable, and economically viable solutions in a rapidly growing sector.

Impact delivered

The project has delivered significant impact despite being in its early stages. Combined with the University’s technical expertise, these advancements are equipping Whitehouse with the capability to deliver high-quality, scalable, and market-ready flood resilience solutions far more efficiently than before. Results are highlighted below:

• Accelerated Product Development: Successful prototyping of Whitehouse’s first flood resilience product, supported by CAD, CFD, and FEA, cutting down on time and costs associated with traditional prototyping.
• Quality Assurance: Digital simulations eliminate sub-par components before the physical build stage, ensuring only designs with proven performance are developed into prototypes.
• Enhanced Efficiency: In-house CAD capability has transformed Whitehouse’s design process, reducing reliance on external communication and manual sketches, improving speed, accuracy, and collaboration.
• Knowledge Transfer: University expertise ensures all designs are rigorously reviewed from multiple perspectives, including scalability, manufacturability, and suitability, strengthening Whitehouse’s capacity to deliver market-leading solutions.
• Future Growth: With the testing tank and scientific frameworks in place, Whitehouse is positioned to rapidly expand its PFR product portfolio, cementing its role as an innovator in a growing and highly needed industry.