Prof Philippa Reed, Prof Janice Barton
Applications accepted all year round
About the Project
Understanding the micromechanics of failure processes such as fatigue requires understanding of the evolution of stress states across length scales. At the microscopic level the stress redistributions between hard and soft phases fundamentally affect the local processes of failure, while the mesoscopic stress states produced by weldments or different materials layers are intrinsically linked to the interaction of the differing constitutive materials behaviours as well as the effects of residual stresses. Finally the overall global stress state provides the global boundary conditions within which these failure processes and stress field interactions play out at the differing length scales. The proposed project will use a range of techniques to evaluate failure processes in a number of layered and welded systems, to map out critical features in detail at representative length scales and to examine the evolving stress and strain states affecting fatigue initiation and early growth processes in layered and welded structures. The aim of the project is to compare data rich experimental mechanics approaches such as in-situ X-ray CT evaluations, DIC and thermoelastic stress analysis with microscopic assessments (e.g. serial sectioning approaches with optical and electron microscopy) to determine the failure processes and the stress and strain fields evolving in layered and welded structures and how this affects crack initiation and growth under fatigue loading in these complex architectures. This is a blue skies project which will focus on the synthesis of full-field techniques to assess a number of possible material architectures alongside other industrially funded PhDs, the post holder will therefore be able to interact with a number of industrial problems being worked upon in the Materials Group.
If you wish to discuss any details of the project informally, please contact Philippa Reed or Janice Barton, Materials research group, Email: [Email Address Removed], Tel: +44 (0) 2380 593763 or [Email Address Removed], Tel: +44 (0) 2380 596522.
Visit our Postgraduate Research Opportunities Afternoon to find out more about Postgraduate Research study within the Faculty of Engineering and the Environment: http://www.southampton.ac.uk/engineering/news/events/2016/02/03-discover-your-future.page
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