Funding providers: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Swansea Bay City Deal regional investment fund
Subject areas: Materials Science/Engineering; Polymer Science/Physics, Chemical Science/Engineering
Project start date:
- 1 October 2023 (Enrolment open from mid-September)
Project supervisors:
Aligned programme of study: PhD in Mechanical Engineering
Mode of study: Full-time
Project description:
Summary: Exciting PhD opportunity. Fully funded for UK home students. Exciting new sensor technology. Application in renewable energy. Newly built laboratory equipment. Experienced supervisors. Good industrial partners.
Project description: A Wave Energy Converter (WEC) harvests clean and green energy from ocean waves. Traditionally, they use multiple rigid bodies, but there is significant cost potential from use of flexible membranes (mWEC) as the main interaction with the waves. Survivability and reliability of these highly deformable membrane structures is a key concern. An mWEC operating underwater experiences multiple modes of deformations (tension, compression, bending/twisting; in- and out-of-plane deformations) during its service life. Hence, ensuring reliability of membrane structures through constant health monitoring in damage-prone areas using stretchable sensors is an ideal choice. However, the integration of stretchable sensors in mWEC face several challenges, i) design of multi-modal sensor networks that can simultaneously capture in-and out-of-plane deformations, ii) arrangements of sensor electronics in submerged conditions and iii) experimental validation of sensor’ responses mimicking sub-sea conditions using a recently purchased multi-axial test rig. The sensors will also be applied to monitoring wind turbine blades. We will address the aforementioned scientific challenges in this project.
Project aim: Building upon unique and unparalleled experimental lab in Europe on soft and flexible materials, this PhD project sets out an ambitious research plan which will investigate, with the help of cutting-edge experimental facilities, two fundamental aspects: (1) fatigue-resistant self-healing flexible sensors made of rubber-like materials, to obtain high sensitivity, low cost, durable alternatives of traditional sensors by exploring rigorous experimental studies, and (2) to test newly-developed flexible sensors for their suitability in renewable energy-generating structures, e.g. flexible membrane wave energy converters, tidal and wind turbine blades.
Resources: The PhD student will take advantage of state-of-the-art soft polymer fabrication (3D/4D printing), soft materials characterisation (i.e. thermo-electro-mechanical testing rigs) equipment, and test rigs for composite materials developed by the group.
Locations: Faculty of Science and Engineering, Bay Campus, Swansea University, Swansea, UK
Eligibility
Candidates must normally hold an undergraduate degree at 2.1 level (or Non-UK equivalent as defined by Swansea University) in Engineering or similar relevant science discipline.
English Language requirements: If applicable – IELTS 6.5 overall (with at least 5.5 in each individual component) or Swansea recognised equivalent.
Due to funding restrictions, this scholarship is open to applicants eligible to pay tuition fees at the UK rate only, as defined by UKCISA regulations.
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