The EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Advanced Metallic Systems is a partnership between two internationally recognised centres of excellence in metallic materials at the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester.

The CDT was set up to address the critical shortage of doctoral level metallic material specialists in the UK. Graduates from physical science and engineering disciplines are trained in fundamental metallurgical science and engineering as well as undertaking an industry sponsored, multi-disciplinary cutting-edge doctoral project through our 4 year programme. We aim to provide urgently needed future metallic materials specialists ready to lead the world in innovative high value manufacturing.

We work with over 30 industrial collaborators across the aerospace, automotive, nuclear, oil & gas and manufacturing sectors on a wide range of materials from steels to zirconium alloys. Projects range from those focussed on improving our fundamental understanding of metallic materials to investigating the potential of innovative new manufacturing technologies.

PhD Projects and Funding

The CDT has a number of fully funded PhD studentships covering tuition fees (home and EU student) and an enhanced maintenance scholarship for four years funded by EPSRC, the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester and industrial collaborators. In 2015/16 the minimum tax-free stipend is £14,057 enhanced to £16,057 in the first year and £17,057 thereafter.

Up to 6 students per cohort will be recruited to the CDT each year who will choose their projects after about 6 months from a selection put forward by CDT staff and their industrial collaborators. Students must be UK or EU nationals who have been resident in the past 3 years to be eligible for these projects.

Other students will be recruited directly to specific projects put forward by our industrial collaborators. Students from the UK or EU are eligible for these projects.

EngD Projects and Funding

The following Engineering Doctorate projects are available for 2015/16. All are sponsored by Tata Steel Long Products and offer an enhanced stipend of £18,000 pa for 4 years. For all projects, the research engineer will be located at Scunthorpe works and will be resident with the technical team dealing with the products on the daily basis. The production facilities are all located on-site. Access to the industrial supervisor will be on a weekly if not daily basis. Whilst on-site, the research engineer will constitute part of the technical team. There will be considerable interaction with other business functions, including production, engineering, commercial and marketing.

The influence of composition and wire drawing on the microstructure and properties of high strength wire rod steels – supervised by Prof Mark Rainforth

Cold drawn pearlitic wires are capable of attaining very high strength levels, and so are utilised extensively for numerous engineering applications, e.g. bridge-wires, mooring cables, lifting ropes, tyre cords and springs. However, such high strength wires can undergo a strain ageing reaction during service, which may shorten their service life due to a slow deterioration in mechanical properties. It is known that cold drawing pearlitic wires results in cementite dissolution and heterogeneous carbon enrichment of the ferrite, which gives the very high levels of strength in heavily drawn wire. After drawing, interstitial carbon atoms within the ferrite slowly diffuse to dislocations/sub-grain boundaries resulting in a gradual alteration of the mechanical properties of the wire. It is considered that a deeper understanding of the structure and property relationship of cold drawn pearlitic wires may lead to higher levels of strength and/or greater stability of the mechanical properties of the wire during service.

It is envisaged that the programme of work will focus on (a) gaining an understanding of the role of pearlite during and after drawing, and its influence on mechanical properties through the development of a theoretical model and (b) understanding the influence of composition on the drawing response of pearlite through the utilisation of a range of experimental techniques including mechanical property testing and microstructural analysis.

Successful completion of this project should result in a better understanding of how pearlitic wires respond to cold drawing and behave afterwards. This may then enable the development and commercial production of stabilised high strength wires, as well as the possibility of even higher strength wires (>6GPa).

Quenched and Tempered Plate Property Development – supervised by Dr Eric Palmiere

Quenched & Tempered (Q&T) plate grades are provided for numerous applications and in the Lifting & Excavating and Energy & Power market sectors. These markets are moving towards heavier gauge, higher strength plates with good low temperature toughness. A number of process and product factors influence the development of the required mechanical properties in these steels, and not all of these factor combinations are properly understood. A more detailed understanding of the effects of these parameters is required in order to determine the optimum combinations and strength and toughness that can be obtained at the lowest alloy and processing costs for these steel grades.

It is envisaged that the programme of work will focus on (a) gaining a detailed understanding of the correlation between steel composition and tempering process parameters and the subsequent material properties; and (b) understanding and characterise the influence of prior processing history (casting, rolling, etc.) on the development of these mechanical properties. The research engineer will be involved with plant trials, assessing changes to process parameters, data analysis of the production process parameters and relating this process information to detailed analysis of the products microstructure and properties.

Surface Degradation Mechanisms in Rail Steels – supervised by Prof Mark Rainforth

The Rail sector is a buoyant market sector in the UK and Europe, with significant investment in infrastructure over the past few years that is destined to continue for the foreseeable future. The recently announced HS2 is a prime example of the future investment in the sector.

All rail products suffer from surface degradation at the rail-wheel interface. This degradation is the result of various mechanisms. Some of these mechanisms are well understood, such as rolling contact fatigue (RCF). One mechanism that is not understood is the formation of “squats”, which are distinct areas of degradation of the surface and also the sub-surface microstructure. These defects occur in all grades of rail steel, irrespective of their microstructure.

It is envisaged that the programme of work will focus on the following:

• Gaining an understanding of the appearance of squats, where they occur on the rail and where in the rail network they are more prevalent.
• Understanding and characterising the form of the microstructural degradation associated with the defects.
• Assessing the potential for ways of mitigating and eliminating these defects, assessing alternative processing techniques and steel compositions to give the appropriate balance of properties.

Welding of Bainitic Rail Steels supervised by Dr Eric Palmiere

The Rail sector is a buoyant market sector in the UK and Europe, with significant investment in infrastructure over the past few years that is destined to continue for the foreseeable future. The recently announced HS2 is a prime example of the future investment in the sector.

Bainitic rail steels exhibit major property benefits over conventional pearlitic rail steels, including increased toughness, high resistance to wear and to rolling contact fatigue (RCF). However, there are barriers to further expansion of the use of this grade of steel. One of the main challenges is the ability of bainitic steels to maintain their properties at the welded joint. Steel rails are welded together during installation and the ability of pearlitic rail steels to maintain material properties during the welding operation is not something that presently can be achieved in bainitic steels

It is envisaged that the programme of work will focus on the following:

• Gaining an understanding of the role of bainite in Rail Steels and its influence on mechanical properties. Gain an understanding of the role of welding in rail steel production and the effect of welding on the microstructure and properties of pearlitic and bainitic rail steels.
• Understanding the causes of the property deterioration during welding in bainitic steels.
• Assessing the potential for alternative joining techniques, composition development or post-weld heat treatments to mitigate the problem.

This is an experimentally based project which will include both property and microstructural analysis as well as opportunities to develop expertise in welding and heat treatment processes.

Closing date: 30/04/2015

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