Dr Brian McKay

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About Brian

Dr Brian McKay is a newly appointed lecturer in BCAST at Brunel University. Prior to this he was a university assistant at the Institute of Casting Research (ICR), University of Leoben, Austria (2003-2009) and a research fellow at UMIST (2003). He obtained his DPhil from Oxford University, MSc from The Queen’s University of Belfast and BEng from the University of Ulster.

He has over 10 years’ experience in solidification research and has published over 20 papers, mainly in internationally peer-reviewed journals. His research interests have been centred on understanding heterogeneous nucleation during solidification, which has included the characterisation of Al/TiB2 interfaces by transmission electron microscopy and the development of ZrB2 based grain refiners for Mg-Al based alloys. In 2006, Brian as a co-author received the TMS ‘Magnesium Application Award’ for a paper entitled ‘Preliminary investigation on the grain refinement behavior of ZrB2 particles in Mg-Al alloys’.

During his six years as a university assistant in Leoben, he helped steer the solidification research activities at the ICR and developed many links with the metal casting industry. This has allowed him to obtain extensive knowledge of, and wider skills in, various casting processes.

Recent Publications

M. Zarif, B.J. McKay, and P. Schumacher: Study of heterogeneous nucleation in high purity Al-Si alloys with Sr addition; Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A (2010) Volume 42, Number 6, 1684-169

Other Representative Publications

• B.J. McKay, G. Nunner, G.F. Geier, and P. Schumacher: Impurities in Al-5Ti-1B (wt.%) grain refiner rod; TMS Light Metals, (2010), p 613-618.
• P. Schumacher, B.J. McKay, S. Eck, and A. Ludwig: International Journal of Casting Research; Vol. 22, ICASP-2 special issue, eds. P. Schumacher, B.J. McKay, E. Eck, A. Ludwig, No. 1-4, (2009).
• G. Klösch, B.J. McKay, and P. Schumacher: Preliminary investigation on the grain refinement behavior of ZrB 2 particles in Mg-Al alloys; Magnesium Technology, Vol 2006, (2006), p 69-75.
• B.J. McKay, and P. Schumacher: Heterogeneous nucleation mechanisms of TiB2 particles in Al alloys; TMS Annual Meeting, (2005), p 155-164.
• P. Schumacher, and B.J. McKay: TEM investigation of heterogeneous nucleation mechanism in Al-Si alloys; J. Non-crystalline Solids, Vol 317, (2003), p 123-128.

Research Interests

Current Research Projects

• Development of Synthetic TiB2 based grain refiners  Y. Zhang, H-T Li, B. McKay, Z. Fan (Funded by LSM)
• Development of Oxide based grain refiners  H-T Li, Y. Zhang, B. McKay, Z. Fan (Funded by LSM)
• Ductility in Al alloys  F. Wang, B. McKay, Z. Fan