Novel 3D tailored discontinuous fibre preforms for a sustainable future in composite manufacturing at University of Bath on FindAPhD.com

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Dr HaNa Yu No more applications being accepted Competition Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)

Bath United Kingdom Manufacturing Engineering Mechanical Engineering Materials Science Polymers Structural Engineering

About the Project

This project is one of a number that are in competition for funding from the University of Bath URSA competition. Please see the URSA webpage for more information. https://www.bath.ac.uk/campaigns/university-research-studentship-award-ursa/

Project

Fibre reinforced polymer composites offer outstanding strength, stiffness and low weight, and their use is rising rapidly in various sectors such as aerospace and automotive. However composite manufacturing is challenging as it is often faced by long processing time, waste in production and limited formability for complex shapes. One way to overcome these challenges is to utilise short rather than long fibres. However current manufacturing processes handling short fibres lead to a difficulty in achieving the mechanical property required and produce a large amount of waste during production.

The supervisor of this PhD project published a patent, High Performance Discontinuous Fibres (HiPerDiF)[1], aimed at overcoming these challenges. It offers one way of handling discontinuous fibres, i.e. aligning them all in one direction, leading to achieving comparable mechanical properties of continuous fibre reinforced composites.

Current composite fabrication methods inevitably generate a high percentage of carbon fibre waste during production. According to the estimates reported by CompositesWorld [2], around 30% of produced carbon fibre ends up as waste [3,4]. As carbon fibre is a high value material that is energy intensive to manufacture and reclaim, it is clear that reducing the waste of carbon fibres in production will become critical to sustainable future of composites industry.

The purpose of PhD project is therefore to create next innovative steps in discontinuous fibre composites for a sustainable future. The successful applicant will innovate and create a process capable of manipulating the fibre orientation and its volume content to create novel 3D fibre architecture in composites and characterise physical properties of the microstructure of manufactured discontinuous fibre preforms.

Candidate Requirements

Applicants should hold, or expect to receive, a First Class or good Upper Second Class Honours degree (or the equivalent). A master’s level qualification would also be advantageous.

Non-UK applicants must meet our English language entry requirement.

Enquiries and Applications

Informal enquiries are welcomed and should be directed to Dr HaNa Yu - [Email Address Removed]

Formal applications should be made via the University of Bath’s online application form for a PhD in Mechanical Engineering.

When completing the form, please identify your application as being for the URSA studentship competition in Section 3 Finance (question 2) and quote the project title and lead supervisor’s name in the ‘Your research interests’ section.

More information about applying for a PhD at Bath may be found on our website.

Funding Eligibility

To be eligible for funding, you must qualify as a Home student. The eligibility criteria for Home fee status are detailed and too complex to be summarised here in full; however, as a general guide, the following applicants will normally qualify subject to meeting residency requirements: UK nationals (living in the UK or EEA/Switzerland), Irish nationals (living in the UK or EEA/Switzerland), those with Indefinite Leave to Remain and EU nationals with pre-settled or settled status in the UK under the EU Settlement Scheme). This is not intended to be an exhaustive list. Additional information may be found on our fee status guidance webpage, on the GOV.UK website and on the UKCISA website.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

We value a diverse research environment and aim to be an inclusive university, where difference is celebrated and respected. We welcome and encourage applications from under-represented groups.

If you have circumstances that you feel we should be aware of that have affected your educational attainment, then please feel free to tell us about it in your application form. The best way to do this is a short paragraph at the end of your personal statement.

Keywords

Manufacturing Engineering; Materials Science; Mechanical Engineering; Polymers; Structural Engineering

Funding Notes

Candidates may be considered for an URSA studentship, tenable for 3.5 years. Funding covers tuition fees at the Home rate, a £1000 per annum training support fee, and a stipend at the UKRI rate (£15,609 p/a in 2021/22).
An URSA studentship only covers tuition fees at the Home tuition fee rate, and so students eligible for Overseas tuition fee status are not eligible to apply. Exceptional Overseas students (e.g. with a UK Masters Distinction or international equivalent) who are interested in the project should contact the intended supervisor in the first instance, to discuss the possibility of applying for additional funding.

References

[1]H.Yu, K.Potter, ‘Discontinuous Fibre Alignment method, High Performance-Discontinuous Fibre (HiPerDiF) method’, EU patent granted, 1308/2986768, 2017
[2]BMW Carbon Fibre (CFRP) – PRODUCTION captured at https://youtu.be/sFYXHMZFqsU?t=206
[3] Francis S. ‘The state of recycled carbon fiber’. CompositesWorld, 2019. https://www.compositesworld.com/articles/the-state-of-recycled-carbon-fiber
[4] Sloan J. ‘BMW Leipzig: The epicenter of i3 production’. CompositesWorld, 2014. https://www.compositesworld.com/articles/bmw-leipzig-the-epicenter-of-i3-production-1]