PhD Studentships in Variant Selection in Titanium Alloys

UK. University of Manchester.

Three years fully funded PhD studentships in the School of Materials within a research project entitled “Variant Selection in Titanium Alloys“. This PhD studentship is fully-funded by EPSRC, and will provide the equivalent of Home tuition fees and an annual stipend of £12,940.

To be eligible candidates should hold at least a 2.1 UK Honours degree, MSc or equivalent international degree in a materials science or related subject. Both UK and International Students may apply for this studentships.

Project Description

Titanium alloys are widely used in the aerospace industry and for biomaterial applications because they are lightweight and still exhibit very high strength even at temperatures up to 600°C. As many other engineering alloys, Titanium alloys are prone to develop strong textures during thermomechanical processing.

More recently, the issue of microtexture development has become an important issue since it dictates the effective structural unit size and therefore mechanical properties such as crack initiation and fatigue.

The aim of this project is to develop a detailed understanding of the beta to alpha phase transformation during thermomechanical processing of Titanium alloys. The project, which is part of a 5 University consortium and with support from Rolls-Royce and Timet, will combine detailed metallurgical studies using advanced elecron microscopy (EBSD) and in-situ phase transformation studies on high-energy synchrotron x-ray diffraction beam lines at European facilities such as the ESRF in Grenoble, France.

The new understanding developed within this project will enable to optimize processing routes of Titanium alloys to limit any microtexture development and optimize mechanical properties.

For further details about the project, you may contact the supervisor of this project, Michael Preuss, by email :Michael.preuss@manchester.ac.uk or telephone: +44 161 3063601.

Admissions Contact
Postgraduate Team, School of Materials
Email: pg-materials@manchester.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)161 306 4824

You can apply online quoting the project reference number PhD/08/MP/01 .

Application deadline is 31 July 2008