About the Project
Applications are invited to undertake a PhD programme in partnership with Lloyd’s Register Foundation.
Background
The mechanical and thermal property limitations of superalloys have encouraged metallurgists to investigate the properties of intermetallic, nano-crystalline and amorphous alloys based on binary systems e.g. TiAI, NiAi or one principal metallic element e.g. Pd, La, Zr, Fe. Limited progress in this field (partly due to the difficulty of fabrication) has increased interest in alloy design based on multiple principal elements in equi-molar or near equi-molar ratios. Physical metallurgy predicts these materials will be very stable due to their high entropy of mixing and they are sometimes referred to as High Entropy Alloys (HEAs). Each element in the MEM is between 5-35 at%. These nano-crystaliine alloys are expected to have outstanding properties including high fatigue strength, resistance to tribological and environmentally assisted damage, thermal stability, and high strength and ductility at low and high temperatures. MEMs are currently the focus of basic experimental research and to date only laboratory scale samples have been produced. These materials are known to be difficult to cast but high deposition processes such as cold spray might lead the way to the manufacture of large near-net shape MEM products by spray-forming and additive manufacturing.
Project Outline
Outline project work scope:
• Review MEM and HEA state-of-the-art and down-select candidate MEM and HEA alloys.
• Investigate the feasibility of depositing MEMs by cold spray and analysis of microstructure
(benchmarked against a well-known, readily-available Ni superalloy e.g. IN718).
• Study various heat treatments (e.g. HIPping, vacuum, Ar) on deposit, interface & substrate
characteristics.
• Study the mechanical properties of as-deposited and heat-treated MEMs.
About the sponsor
The Lloyd’s Register Foundation is a charity set up in 2012, which became fully operational in 2013, with a mission to enhance the safety of life and property and to advance public education in engineering-related subjects. For more information about the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, its activities and latest news visit our website: www.lrfoundation.org.uk
About NSIRC
Projects will be based at NSIRC, a state-of-the-art postgraduate facility established and managed by structural integrity specialist TWI in Cambridge. NSIRC is sponsored by TWI, BP and Lloyd’s Register Foundation and students will work to deliver industry relevant research. PhDs will be supervised and awarded by one of our academic partners such as Brunel University London, Cambridge, Manchester, Loughborough, Birmingham, Leicester, Strathclyde, Edinburgh, Nottingham, Leeds, Cranfield and Coventry. For more information about The National Structural Integrity Research Centre, visit www.nsirc.co.uk
Candidates should have a relevant degree at 2.1 minimum or an equivalent overseas degree in Mechanical, Engineering, Material Science, Metallurgy or Physics. Overseas applicants should also submit IELTS results (minimum 6.5) if applicable.
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