Extending useful metallic product lifetime through manufacturing

The project will be aligned with the newly established Circular Metals Hub hosted by Brunel Centre for Advanced Solidification Technology (BCAST) at Brunel University London. You will be interacting daily with researchers and academics in BCAST, Brunel University London and in partner academic and industrials organisations. In this close collaboration lies the foundation for your promising career path. Metals are vital to human society and have widespread uses across a broad spectrum of industries including but not limited to packaging, transport and construction applications. They are mainly used in load-bearing structural components. Such metallic components have limited useful lifetime due to dynamic environmental and mechanical stimuli, leading to the generation of defects, damages and eventual degradation of the mechanical properties and the failure of component. End-of-life components are then treated as waste which can either be disposed to landfill sites, incinerated or recycled. Waste from end-of-life components undermines the available material resources and poses threats to our environment with dire global warming consequence. Hence there is an urgent need to maintain and extend the useful lifetime of components, thereby increasing material usage efficiency, reducing waste and minimising environmental damage.

This project aims to apply manufacturing process to maintain and extend the useful lifetime of metallic components by stablishing a system for regular service of metallic components. This involves the fundamental study of the effects of heat treatment processes and conditions on the level of defects and damages in metallic components. This information will be correlated to the mechanical properties and performance of the metallic components in order to assess the degree of useful lifetime.

Successful applicants will receive an annual stipend of £19668 including outer London allowance plus payment of their full-time tuition fees for a period of 48 months (4 years).

How to apply

Eligibility

For non-UK nationals a proof of English proficiency (IELTS 6.5 and more) or the eligible proof of undergraduate education received in English is required.

You should have or expect to receive by the beginning of this PhD study a first degree (BSc) at 2:1 or above in a suitable engineering and science discipline, e.g., materials science, mechanical engineering, physics or applied mathematics. A MSc level qualification is desirable.

A strong background in materials science and applied mathematics is desirable as the project includes mathematical modelling and optimisation.

Enquiries should be directed to Professor Isaac Chang at Isaac.chang@brunel.ac.uk

Dr. Ebad Bagherpour at ebad.bagherpour@brunel.ac.uk

Professor Zhongyun Fan at zhongyun.fan@brunel.ac.uk

How to Apply

Email the documents below as a single PDF file to cedps-studentships@brunel.ac.uk

by 16:00 on Tuesday 30 January 2023.

Please state the name of the project supervisor in your email and use project title in the email subject.

Your up-to-date CV;
Your 300-word personal statement setting out why you are suitable for this position;
Your Undergraduate/Postgraduate Masters degree certificate(s) and transcript(s);
Your English Language qualification of IELTS 6.5 overall or equivalent, if applicable;
Two references, one of which can be provided by a member of Brunel University academic staff.

Meet the Supervisor(s)

Isaac Chang - Prof. Isaac Chang is the appointed Professor of Metallurgy & Materials and Head of LiME Training Centre. Prior to this, he was a Reader and Head of Education at School of Metallurgy and Materials, University of Birmingham. He received his DPhil in Materials Science from University of Oxford (1991) and BSc(Eng) in Materials & Metallurgy from Imperial College, London University. He specializes in the field of physical and powder metallurgy, as well as nanotechnology and ceramic science. His research is focussed on the understanding of the relationship between processing, microstructure and properties of materials for industrial applications in transport, energy, healthcare, defence and electronic sectors. He was the first to discover the solid solution with a face centred cubic (FCC) crystal structure in an equiatomic FeCrCoNiMn alloy (the so-called Cantor alloy) in 2004 together with Prof. Brian Cantor, which has contributed to a brand-new field of materials science known as ‘High Entropy Alloys’ or ‘Multiple Principle Element Alloys’. He holds 7 patents and has published over 121 research papers in scientific journals, book chapters and conference proceedings. He is a Fellow of Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) and a member of the editorial board for Journal of Materials, Chemistry and Physics. His current research interest includes muticomponent lightweight alloys, high entropy alloys, metallic glasses, nanocomposites, graphene, high throughput material processing for rapid alloy discovery and synthetic biology for advanced materials development.

Ebad Bagherpour Jahromi - Dr Ebad Bagherpour is a Lecturer at BCAST, Brunel University. Before joining this role, he served as a CircularMetal Research Associate, Level-UP research fellow, and RACEForm research fellow at BCAST, held a Post-Doctoral Researcher position at Doshisha University in Japan, worked as a Lecturer at Shiraz University, and held the position of R&D Manager at Shiraz Kahroba Industrial Co. With a wealth of experience spanning over 15 years in the field of metallurgy and materials science, he specialises in mechanical material characterisation, microstructure-properties relationships in materials, cyclic response of metals, forming technologies, dislocation theory, and deformation mechanisms.