Physical Metallurgy of Heat Treatable Aluminium Alloys

College / Directorate: Brunel Centre for Advance Solidification Technology

Full Time / Part Time: Full-time, fixed term for 30 months

Posted Date: 08/11/2021

Closing Date: 29/11/2021

Salary (R1 Grade): £34,304 – £40,927 per annum plus £2,166 per annum London Weighting

Vacancy Ref: 14114

Ref No: 2734

Applications from suitably qualified and well motivated individuals are invited for the position of Research Assistant/Fellow to work on an EPSRC funded project to study the interaction between solute atoms, precipitates and dislocation during strain enhanced precipitation of high performance wrought aluminium alloys produced by thermomechanical process in the Advanced Metal Casting Centre (AMCC) and Advanced Metal Processing Centre (AMPC), part of BCAST at Brunel University London. In collaboration with Constellium, you will be developing a fundamental understanding of the nucleation mechanism of precipitates during artificial ageing process assisted by prior deformation and solute elements, as well as the dislocation mobility in the presence of precipitates. This position is for 30 months in the first instance.

 BCAST is a speciality research centre focusing on solidification related research with an international reputation and is the host of the national centre of excellence in liquid metal engineering (the EPSRC Centre – LiME). BCAST is well equipped with state-of-the-art facilities for both solidification processing and materials characterisation. See http://bcast.brunel.ac.uk for more information. Both the AMCC & AMPC form a state of the art scale up facility that bridges the gap between fundamental research and full scale industrialisation and is aimed at meeting the short, medium and long term needs of the automotive industry. At present BCAST is in the process of developing our characterisation facilities to global state of the art facilities. 

The successful candidate will work on the thermomechanical processing of heat treatable wrought aluminium alloys. The research will include: (1) study of solute-precipitate-dislocation interaction, (2) quantification of the key processing conditions to promote strain enhanced precipitation behaviour, including understanding of dislocation assisted precipitation and dislocation facilitated work hardening processes, and (3) evaluation of the mechanical properties. They are also expected to interact with other researchers in BCAST/AMCC/AMPC and research engineers from Constellium. 

Eligibility

The successful candidate should have a PhD degree in materials science, metallurgy and engineering, physics or another suitable engineering discipline, and should have a sound background in physical metallurgy. Research experience in solidification & thermomechanical processing of metallic materials, skills in microstructural characterisation using various microscopy techniques and a working knowledge of mechanical testing of metallic materials are essential. In addition, they should have good communication and presentation skills and be a team player. 

Informal enquiries should be directed to Prof. Zhongyun Fan (zhongyun.fan@brunel.ac.uk) or Dr Chamini Mendis (chamini.mendis@brunel.ac.uk). 

 Closing date for applications:  Monday 29th November 2021