Deadline: Applications will be accepted at any time until the position is filled.

The overall objective of this work is to understand the process of damage accumulation in the carbon fibre/epoxy materials in order to understand and control the fibre failure load by choice of material constituents and processing route. Computed tomography now provides a powerful route to quantify both the microstructure and defect/damage condition of polymer matrix composites, particularly given: (a) the spatial resolutions and range of sample sizes that can be handled by different scanning systems, and (b) the potential for in situ monitoring of samples under load. As such, it has become possible to explicitly detect and quantify events down to the level of isolated single fibre failures if necessary. With the ongoing deployment of region of interest (ROI) techniques (such as laminography and reduced angular access scanning), routes to truly non-destructive, in situ, microstructural and micromechanical analysis of engineering-scale test coupons and sub-components have been demonstrated. The µVis Computed Tomography Centre at the University of Southampton is ideally placed to explore this area, due to: (a) multi-million pound investment in exceptionally wide ranging high resolution CT capabilities, including systems to handle samples in excess of 1m in size, down to resolutions of below 1 µm (b) a 10 year track record in complementary synchrotron radiation CT imaging, offering ultimate image quality and resolution on small samples, (c) extensive expertise in handling very large data sets and image processing with a multi-million pound investment in high performance computing hardware and software (d) well developed composite modelling skills, including ongoing collaborations with groups at Teledyne (California), University of Florida, Ecoles des Mines (ParisTech), Imperial College London and KU Leuven.

There are four key techniques that will be employed in this collaborative project with industry: (1) High resolution computed tomography (~1µm resolution) to allow damage processes at the scale of individual fibre breaks to be observed, (2) in situ loading, to allow damage processes and their interactions to be observed and interpreted, (3) Image analysis to allow microstructural variations, including fibre waviness, to be observed and correlated with damage mechanisms, (4) Multiscale modelling/simulation informed and calibrated by the damage observations.

If you wish to discuss any details of the project informally, please contact Mark Spearing, Materials research group, Email: spearing<στο>soton.ac.uk

This scholarship covers the fees and maintenance stipend of UK/EU applicants. There will be a shortfall to cover the remaining fees and maintenance stipend for international applicants.