Revealing and Predicting the Failure Mechanisms in Advanced Materials for Energy - Enhancing Life and Efficiency

The efficiency, safety and reliability of a wide range of engineering systems in the energy sector rely strongly on the performance of their structural components. Increasing energy efficiencies, achieved by maximising operating temperatures, will drive down CO2 emissions and is therefore essential to meet stringent legislation and the UK's and international short and long-term energy goals. Engineering components operate under adverse conditions (stress, temperature and harsh environments) causing their degradation and failure by deformation and fracture processes. Existing energy facilities are aging beyond design life and require life extension to secure short-term energy supplies. Reliable component lifetime assessment is therefore vital to ensure safe operation. New build nuclear reactors will soon be developed and future reactors designed for very high temperature operation and superior performance. Plans are also advanced for the construction of the next generation of conventional power stations with excess operating temperatures and efficiencies. Opportunities are now emerging to exploit a novel collection of innovative techniques, at micro and macro length scales, to obtain a fundamental understanding of material failure mechanisms. These will enable advanced materials and component designs with predictable in-service behaviour, which are crucial to innovation in the energy sector and the key for overcoming the outstanding challenges.Emerging experimental techniques can now reveal the processes, and quantify the extent of deformation and damage in a material as it occurs. High-energy X-ray tomography measurements will give detailed quantitative 3D volumetric insights of damage development, coalescence and failure mechanisms in the bulk of specimens at micro-length scales, during deformation under stress at temperature. In addition, complimentary non-destructive tools will be innovated for practical monitoring of large scale component degradation. At a range of length scales, a digital image correlation technique will be used to measure 3D surface strains on various geometries, and will provide evidence of the influence of defects and material inhomogeneities due to welding processes on strain fields and their evolution with time.High performance computing now facilitates advanced models to simulate material behaviour and structural components' response under various operating conditions. Experimental results will provide the basis for validated mechanistic models of material deformation and failure behaviour, which will be developed and incorporated into 3D computational models that can also include various regions of inhomogeneous material behaviour. This novel collection of advanced experimental techniques, combined with the verified computational models, will provide new powerful tools that are essential to understand and predict component failure, advance designs and optimise their operation.Initially, power plant steels will be examined. However, the methodologies developed can be extended to a wide range of materials relevant to e.g. aerospace, heat and power generation, marine and chemical technologies. The outcomes will lead to methods for component on-line monitoring, predictive multi-scale modelling of materials' initial and through-life properties and the development of accurate assessment procedures for component lifetime predictions that leads to the required plant life extension. Social and economical benefits include minimised environmental impacts, secure supplies, reduced maintenance costs and increased safety. The close collaboration with industry (including partners British/EDF Energy and E.ON) will provide an effective knowledge transfer mechanism between industry and academia, ensure industrial relevance and provide inspiration to a new generation of researchers. This fundamental, timely research is therefore valuable across industrial sectors in addition to the scientific community.

The outcomes of this fellowship and its research findings will have social, economical and environmental impacts, in addition to direct industrial and academic benefits. The fundamental understanding of material deformation and failure mechanisms achieved through this research, and the reliable component lifetime prediction tools established, will lead to the development of advanced materials and component designs for energy applications. The increase in energy efficiency, achieved by enabling industrial plant components to operate at advanced temperatures in a safe and predictable manner, will reduce CO2 emissions and energy production costs. This will aid UK and international energy goals to be achieved and stringent legislation to be realised. Significant savings will be achieved through reduced component failures and maintenance costs. The research findings and methodologies developed in this work will lead to plant life extension, which relies on the assured, safe operation of their structural components. Subsequently, major concerns of energy shortfall in the imminent future will be addressed. The increase in operating efficiencies, reduced maintenance costs and energy security may also affect energy prices and thus industrial manufacturing costs. In the advent of a nuclear renaissance and the next generation of advanced conventional power stations with extreme operating temperatures and efficiencies, it is essential that we develop and retain capability and enhance expertise within the UK in this research field. Currently, there is a lack of such researchers, particularly young researchers, which are vital for the UK's future success and leadership in this research and commercial sector. The extensive industrial and research network that I have established will be exploited during this fellowship to provide vitally important mechanisms for knowledge transfer between academia and industry. This knowledge transfer will be realised through industrial collaborations, studentships developed in partnership with industry (especially the engineering doctorate (EngD) projects, which are set to produce the future industrial leaders) and widely disseminating the research internationally. I have established an excellent track record for research dissemination, including lectures on professional development courses, research forums, international conference presentations, invited talks, publications and a number of international network activities (see CV). In addition, opportunities to visit and extent collaborations with international research institutes will be exploited, to enhance international knowledge transfer. Furthermore, invitations to promote the research field and to encourage UK students to follow a career in science and engineering will be pursued, which will be of long-term benefit to the UK's capabilities. The research results will be of significant commercial benefit. Specifically, the advanced predictive techniques for damage and fracture can be developed into codes and software that are commercially exploitable to industry both nationally and internationally. I have already succeeded in incorporating my research findings into internationally recognised codes and standards (see CV). In addition, in-situ, remote plant component monitoring technologies will be developed through the innovative non-destructive evaluation techniques established during this research programme. The novel, experimental and predictive modelling techniques developed will be applicable to a range of materials. A wide range of industries will therefore benefit from this research, including aerospace, marine technology and petro-chemical processing. I have established extensive networks with these industries, providing effective routes for dissemination. Imperial has the mechanisms in place to exploit the technology and results developed through Imperial Innovations Ltd., the Imperial College London technology transfer company.