Development of High Performance Aluminium Alloys for Automotive Applications
College / Directorate Brunel Centre for Advance Solidification Technology
Full Time / Part Time Full Time
Posted Date 09/02/2021
Closing Date 09/03/2021
Position no: 12843-1
Salary (Grade R1): £33,797 - £40,322 per annum plus £2,166 per annum London Weighting
Full-time, fixed-term for 30 months
Applications from suitably qualified and well motivated individuals are invited for the position of Research Fellow. The successful candidate will work on an EPSRC funded project, to develop a new generation of high performance wrought aluminium alloys based on strain enhanced precipitation using thermomechanical processing 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 wrought aluminium alloys with ultra-high strength, good ductility, high crashworthiness and high thermal conductivity by maximising the strain enhanced precipitation process.
BCAST is a speciality research centre in metallurgy and materials engineering with an international reputation and is the host of the national centre of excellence in liquid metal engineering (the Future LiME Research Hub). Our research covers fundamental research, technological development and industrial applications in materials processing, with a focus on solidification of metallic materials. See www.brunel.ac.uk/bcast for more information.
The successful candidate will work on the thermomechanical processing of heat treatable wrought aluminium alloys. The research will include: (1) development of ultrahigh strength wrought aluminium alloys, (2) quantification of the key alloy chemistry to produce specific type and amount of precipitates to control the dislocation mobility during thermomechanical processing, including the understanding of nucleation and transformation kinetics of precipitates and (3) evaluation of the physical and mechanical properties. The successful candidate is also expected to interact with other researchers in BCAST/AMCC/AMPC and research engineers from Constellium.
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, The successful candidate 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 Prof. Isaac Chang (isaac.chang@brunel.ac.uk)
Closing date for applications: 9 March 2021