Studentships

Applications are invited for one full-time EPSRC Industrial CASE (ICASE) PhD studentship for the project “Development of natural-ageing-resistant, heat-treatable lean aluminium alloys for automotive applications” The Brunel Centre for Advanced Solidification Technology (BCAST) is a specialist research centre in metallurgy with a focus on the processing of metallic materials for lightweighting applications. See BCAST for more information. The project is sponsored by Constellium, a leading global manufacturer of high-quality, technically advanced aluminium products and systems. Successful applicants will receive an annual stipend (bursary) starting from approximately £23,000 plus payment of their full-time home tuition fees for a period of up to 48 months (4 years). Lean automotive aluminium with a lower concentration of alloying elements offers moderate strength and relatively high productivity compared to its highly alloyed counterparts. However, automotive aluminium alloys are susceptible to natural ageing at room temperature, resulting in the formation of clusters from a supersaturated solid solution produced after fast quenching from solution heat treatment. This leads to increased hardness, which affects both formability and the subsequent precipitation hardening process. In addition, promoting a circular economy in the aluminium industry by increasing recyclability and using more recycled aluminium is essential for saving resources, reducing waste and creating a more sustainable future. This project will focus on understanding the effects of vacancy-trapping element addition and quench rate sensitivity of lean Al-Mg-Si-based alloys with varying level of recycled content on the natural ageing response at room temperature and precipitation hardening behaviour during artificial ageing treatment, with the aim of developing lean recyclable Al-Si-Mg-based alloys that are resistant to natural ageing, tolerant of slower quenching rates, and capable of offering high productivity and moderate mechanical properties for automotive applications. The project will be part of the activities of the Constellium University Technology Centre (UTC) established with BCAST. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to interact with researchers in BCAST and with Constellium’s industrial research engineers. An industrial supervisor of the project will be appointed by Constellium. This close collaboration provides a strong foundation for a future career, whether in industry or academia. Please contact Prof. Isaac Chang at Isaac.Chang@brunel.ac.uk for an informal discussion about the project.

Constellium, a global leader in aluminium manufacturing and innovation, seeks to advance its capabilities by placing greater emphasis on thermo-mechanical process optimization and precipitate kinetics engineering. The design and optimization of aluminium alloys have traditionally relied on compositional tuning – adding or adjusting alloying. This requires tight compositional control hard to ensure, especially, with high-scrap content. This Ph.D. proposal aims to develop a comprehensive framework that integrates kinetic modelling and optimized thermal strategies to revolutionize aluminium alloy development – moving from a composition-centric approach to a thermal process-driven methodology. Objectives Critically evaluate the limitations of conventional alloy development routes based on alloying element variation. Support and validate previous findings and experiments. Implement advanced kinetic models to predict Thermo-Mechanical Ageing (TMA) condition for specific desired properties of high-scrap aluminium alloys. Design and validate tailored thermal treatment paths (Solutionising, quenching, ageing and interrupted ageing, etc.) Establish processing-microstructure-property relationships using experimental data and supported by modelling predictions Develop a digital decision-support tool to guide the UTC team doing proper heat treatment schedules based on kinetics predictions and desired mechanical property targets.   Expected results and Impact: This Ph.D. project is expected to develop high-scrap-content alloys and enhance digital, AI-integrated recycling by optimising process windows and thermal paths instead of focusing solely on chemical composition. Once specific mechanical properties, like yield strength and elongation, are identified for an application, a digital tool, for example, will recommend the suitable high-scrap alloy, its thermo-mechanical treatments, CO2 emissions, and energy consumption. By shifting the emphasis from "chemical control" to "kinetics and thermal process control," we seek to redefine high-performance, scrap-tolerant aluminium alloy design. This will help reduce environmental impact and energy costs.

Global growth is increasing world demands on energy, but society also demands that it be produced, delivered and used in new and better ways with fewer emissions for a low carbon future. As a low-carbon fuel, hydrogen can be used in combustion engines to decarbonise tailpipe emissions from the transport and genset sectors. Many heavy-duty vehicle manufacturers are working on hydrogen-fuelled internal combustion engines. However, in addition to offering great promise from an engine efficiency and environmental perspective, hydrogen internal combustion engines face significant challenges related to abnormal combustion, which can hinder their performance, reliability, and long-term viability. Sponsored by Castrol and EPSRC, This project aims to investigate the mechanisms of lubricant-related abnormal combustion in these engines using advanced optical diagnostic techniques in a unique optical engine at Brunel. The aim is, through visualisation and instrumentation, to improve understanding of the phenomena in order to improve engine and lubricant design and contribute to accelerating the development of this technology space.

Applications are invited for one full-time EPSRC Industrial CASE (ICASE) PhD studentship for the project “Understanding crush behaviour of recycled 6xxx Aluminium alloys subjected to different thermomechanical treatments” The Brunel Centre for Advanced Solidification Technology (BCAST) is a specialist research centre in metallurgy with a focus on the processing of metallic materials for lightweighting applications. See BCAST for more information. The project is sponsored by Constellium, a leading global manufacturer of high-quality, technically advanced aluminium products and systems. Successful applicants will receive an annual stipend (bursary) starting from approximately £23,000 plus payment of their full-time home tuition fees for a period of up to 48 months (4 years). The net-zero and sustainability targets, as well as export cost, mean that there is an increased need to rely on a new class of alloys with higher recycle content that must be developed for both high-strength and crash-resistant alloys. Due to the differences in minor impurity additions in the recycled alloys compared with the alloys based on primary alloys, there is a need to develop new, and modify the current thermo-mechanical process used to strengthen the current generation of crush alloys. The programme will use different thermomechanical processing paths, including heat treatment and more complex paths, including deformation and ageing and other non-conventional paths to provide the best combination of crush performance and strength along with energy absorption properties from the new generation of high-recycle-content crush alloys. The main objective of the project is to understand the deformation behaviour of the high-recycle-content crush alloys and the role of tramp elements in controlling the final property profiles. The understanding developed here will provide pathways to exploit the alloy composition and thermomechanical treatments to optimise the property profiles of the next generation crush alloys and allow the full exploitation of the various tramp elements found in the recycled alloys to maximise the property profiles. The project will be part of the activities of the Constellium University Technology Centre (UTC) established with BCAST. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to interact with researchers in BCAST and with Constellium’s industrial research engineers. An industrial supervisor of the project will be appointed by Constellium. This close collaboration provides a strong foundation for a future career, whether in industry or academia. Please contact Dr Chamini Mendis at Chamini.Mendis@brunel.ac.uk for an informal discussion about the project.