UCL Department / Division
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Location of position
London
Duration of Studentship
4 Years
Stipend
£17,983 + Industry top-up (circa £5,000 pa)
Vacancy Information
The Department of Mechanical Engineering is funding a 4-year PhD Studentship: Steel development for next generation jet engines.
Studentship Description
This project will combine novel computational and experimental activities to study the fatigue response of advanced case-hardened gear steels; this understanding will be used to design new materials and microstructures with improved mechanical performance.
The work will involve developing micromechanical Finite Element-based models incorporating effects of the changing microstructure along a gear’s case and core to predict steel’s fatigue response. Experimental work will include mechanical testing of materials having different microstructural conditions, Scanning and Transmission Electron Microscopy (SEM and TEM) and diffraction to validate the models and provide insights of the deformation mechanisms operating during cyclic loading.
Specifically for SEM, the successful candidate will be encouraged to learn and use advanced Electron Microscopy techniques, such as Transmission Kikuchi Diffraction, to identify key microstructural changes and texture at the nano-scale. Machine Learning shall also be used to design what combinations of microstructural features and gear’s carbon profiles lead to improvements in fatigue life.
Person Specification
Rolls-Royce’s next generation Ultrafan jet engine has been developed to meet the challenging demands of significantly reducing CO2, NOx and noise emissions in current and future aircraft
(https://www.rolls-royce.com/media/our-stories/innovation/2016/advance-and-ultrafan.aspx ).
A key technological breakthrough has been the development of a power gearbox considerably increasing the bypass ratio, therefore requiring less fuel consumption -irrespective of the fuel constituents. However, an aeroengine’s power gearbox demands extreme service conditions, where gears are subject to very high contact stresses, very high speeds and high contact temperatures, and no material has ever been tested under such harsh environments.
Case-hardened high-performance steels are ideal materials for this application due to their excellent wear and fatigue performance, but it is not known whether existing alloys can be optimised for the more demanding conditions, specifically under bending fatigue. Therefore, it is necessary to improve our fundamental understanding of the deformation mechanisms in advanced steels such that the gear’s fatigue life can be successfully improved.
Eligibility
This funding is available to UK, EU, and overseas students. The funding for fees is capped at home-rates. Students not qualifying for home-rate fees should be able to provide matching funding.
Eligible applicants should first contact Dr Enrique Galindo-Nava ([email protected]) quoting the job reference.
Please enclose a cover letter (including the names and contact details of two referees), one-page research statement and two pages CV.
The supervisory team will arrange interviews for short-listed candidates. After the interview, the successful candidate will be required to formally apply online via the UCL (University College London) website.
Contact name
Enrique Galindo-Nava
Contact details
[email protected]
UCL Taking Action for Equality
Closing Date
30 Apr 2022
Latest time for the submission of applications
23:59
Interview date
TBC
Studentship Start Date
26th September 2022
Similar Positions
-
Ph D Studentship In Shear Band Modelling , ; Imperial College London, United Kingdom, 16 days ago
Applications are invited for a research studentship in the field of Mechanics of Materials leading to the award of a PhD degree. Shear bands are narrow regions of intense shear that can arise when...
-
Nihr Gosh Brc Translational Research (Non Clinical) Ph D Studentships , ; Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust, United Kingdom, 10 days ago
NIHR GOSH BRC Translational Research (Non-Clinical) PhD Studentships An exciting non-clinical PhD opportunity at the NIHR Great Ormond Street Hospital Biomedical Research Centre (NIHR GOSH BRC) is...
-
Ph D Studentship: Fully Funded Ph D Scholarship In Next Generation Of Optical Neuroimaging , ;, United Kingdom, 15 days ago
Duration of study: Full time - 4 years fixed term (1y MRes + 3y PhD) Starting date: September 2024 Primary Supervisor: Prof. Ilias Tachtsidis, Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineer...
-
Ph D Studentship In Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Imaging Mri Of The Spine , ;, United Kingdom, 9 days ago
About us A 3-year PhD Studentship is available at the UCL Division of Surgery and Interventional Science, within the Research Department of Orthopaedics and Musculoskeletal Science based at the Ro...
-
Gosh Brc Applied Child Health Informatics Theme (Non Clinical) Ph D Studentships , ; Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust, United Kingdom, 12 days ago
An exciting non-clinical PhD opportunity at the NIHR Great Ormond Street Hospital Biomedical Research Centre (NIHR GOSH BRC) is open for applications. The NIHR GOSH BRC Applied Child Health and In...
-
Ph D Studentship: In Rydberg Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics , ; UCL, United Kingdom, 14 days ago
Supervisor: Jonathan Breeze ([email protected] ) Applications are invited for a 4-year PhD studentship in Rydberg Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics, funded by the Royal Society and supervised by Dr ...