Investigation of wear in industrial coal grinding and drying plants (Tata Steel)

Tata Steel (https://www.tatasteeleurope.com/) is one of the world’s most geographically diversified steel producers, with operations in 26 countries and commercial offices in over 35 countries, one of the largest steel producers in Europe.

Wear within industrial coal preparation plants is a consequence of handling abrasive bulk materials. Such plant wear can be the result of more than one active mechanism - the most dominant of which is often a function of the interaction between plant equipment, operating conditions and properties of the material. The development of models that can integrate more fully information relating to variations in bulk properties is of significant utility in maximising plant operational time, or optimising predictive maintenance strategies. Coal characteristics with impact driven wear mechanisms are to be investigated with laboratory wear tests. Results will be applied in wear-predicting models. These will be validated with plant measurements and used to foresee wear. The project is multi-disciplinary, however a strong background knowledge of Computational Fluid Dynamics is beneficial, and a willingness to undertake laboratory experiments.

Academic supervisors: Dr Donald Giddings and Dr Carol Eastwick, Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham and Mr Richard J Farnish, Department of Applied Engineering and Management, University of Greenwich

The Centre wishes to recruit someone with a science or engineering background who has a first or high 2.1 (above 65% grade mark average) class honours degrees. The funding available restricts the projects to students with UK residency only.

If you wish to apply, please send your CV and covering letter to the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Carbon Capture and Storage and Cleaner Fossil Energy: [Email Address Removed].