UNDERSTANDING THE DEGREDATION OF HISTORIC ARCHITECTURAL TERRACOTTA

Project team: Dr Daniel Maskell, Dr Richard Ball

Informal queries should be directed to Dr Dan Maskell (d.maskell@bath.ac.uk)

Project:

This PhD project will work collaboratively with industry and a range of stakeholders including Historic England, conservation architects, manufacturers and building owners to develop modern terracotta for conservation of historic buildings. Current practices involving replacement are expensive, time consuming and the modern substitutes often have poor compatibility and uncomparable performance compared to the original terracotta. This has a significant negative impact to the building itself and also the building owner and occupants. Based on an understanding of the historic material and modern constraints a new approach will be developed for conservation and repair. This PhD is ideally suited for a highly motivated student, with a degree in a physical sciences or engineering discipline, that enjoys working in an industry focused academic environment. The project will follow an approach centred on materials science within an engineering context and will seek to utilise various characterisation techniques as well and larger scale engineering testing. The research will uniquely combine these two approaches for a project that will have real impact. Bath is well placed to provide the necessary training to enable the student to take full advantage of the world class facilities available to undertake this project. For further information and informal enquiries, please contact Dr Dan Maskell (Tel: +44 (0)1225 384472; email: d.maskell@bath.ac.uk). 

Candidate:

Applicants should hold, or expect to receive, an undergraduate First or Upper Second Class UK Honours degree or MSc distinction (or non-UK equivalent). in Civil Engineering, Material Science, Chemistry or a similar field.

Application:

Formal applications should be made via the University of Bath’s online application form for a PhD in Architecture and Civil Engineering. Please ensure that you state the full project title and lead supervisor name on the application form.

https://samis.bath.ac.uk/urd/sits.urd/run/siw_ipp_lgn.login?process=siw_ipp_app&code1=RDUAR-FP01&code2=0015

More information about applying for a PhD at Bath may be found here:

http://www.bath.ac.uk/guides/how-to-apply-for-doctoral-study/

Expected start date: 1 April 2021 or sooner