Mechanical Engineering

The work undertaken during the PhD will be concerning the European commission funded investigation into the structural integrity of long-use piping within power station cooling. Having spoken to Dr Mahmoud Mostafavi, the areas of research relating to the university were outlined.

The university's work will be focusing on the creation of methods for considering the interaction between applied and residual stresses during operation of piping with varying ages. During use these pipes begin to age due to their environment, leading to the question of how the performance of these pipes change with age? Pre-aged pipe sections will be experimented upon with the effect of ageing and operational conditions on weld residual stresses looked at, showing how the residual stress profiles change with different operational conditions. These experimental findings can then inform existing models to improve residual stress predictions.

The personal work to be undertaken is as yet undefined with details to fully decided upon at a later date, however, it will be within the range of research described above.