PhD in Material-Invariant Forest Dislocation Hardening

Cranfield University in collaboration with The University of Birmingham are seeking highly motivated and accomplished PhD students to conduct cutting-edge research in the degradation of materials under extreme irradiation conditions./nWe offer a fully funded program in which Students will receive a 4-year studentship including home tuition fees, UKRI stipend (indicated as £21,383 in 26-27) and a £25k RTSG budget for the project. All costs associated with attending CDT training will be met by the RTSG budget./nThe project requires close interaction with US national laboratories (NNL, Los Alamos), with ample potential for travel and further collaboration./nThis EngD work will focus on implementing an engineering model whose parameterisation is simplified, to the point in which predictions can be achieved by knowing the irradiation history of fusion components without further testing. The project will leverage existing technology developments such as material-invariant forest dislocation hardening (as demonstrated by Castelluccio for FCC materials and Kubin with FCC and BCC) to identify hardening parameters that can be shared across materials & be used to guide engineers to develop constitutive models./nSecondly, the project will address low temperature irradiation-embrittlement (LTHE) and establish a constitutive model that will link the unirradiated and irradiated properties for engineering design./nLocation: Cranfield, United Kingdom.