UK: PhD Studentships in Manufacturing Technology

Three PhD Studentships
Innovative Manufacturing Technology for a Low Carbon Future
Department of Engineering

Limit of tenure: 31 March 2013

Three positions exist for PhD students with UK or EU nationality to join a seven person team working to demonstrate the technological and business changes required to meet the 2050 carbon target for steel and aluminium.

The project is funded by a prestigious EPSRC Leadership Fellowship awarded to Dr Julian Allwood, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Engineering, who has an international reputation for leadership in innovative metal forming and sustainable manufacture. The project is in collaboration with a large consortium of committed industrial partners including Boeing, Ford, Jaguar Land Rover, Corus, Alcoa, Novelis, Siemens, Arups and many others. The project has two major aims: to develop and demonstrate the technologies required to support a low carbon metals economy; to identify the barriers to achieving the carbon targets in the sector and identify the mechanisms of change required by required business and government.

The PhD students will work on three areas of technology that will become vital as we move to a low carbon economy:
- Lightweight design and manufacturing technology: the theory of structural optimization is mature, but has had little practical application as it leads to designs that are difficult to manufacture. This PhD will expand the theory of structural optimization to apply to real manufacturing processes, and show the possibility of reducing the amount of metal in use through design and construction of physical demonstrators including variable section I-beams for construction, and ribbed body parts in car manufacture.
- Minimising energy in forming and fabrication: a low carbon economy will mainly use recycled materials, and once this is established the energy required to form parts from stock will be a large part of the ‘embedded energy’ in a product. This area has to date received very little attention, so this PhD will develop the basic theory to allow design of minimum energy forming, and will design, construct and evaluate physical demonstrators of novel low energy forming processes.
- Reusing metal without melting: If metal demand doubles by 2050, as anticipated, there will not be enough energy available in a low carbon economy to meet requirements by conventional recycling via melting. Up to half of metal must be recycled without melting, but this area has received little attention.

This PhD will identify the requirements for product design, joining techniques, in-service monitoring, deconstruction, post-service assessment, geometry and property adjustment and certification required to re-use metal. The project will include the design and construction of demonstrators related to construction, and extension of existing work on recycling by cold-bonding.

Candidates for these positions should have a good first degree in engineering, materials sciences or applied maths from a top university. Strong candidates will be able to demonstrate an enthusiasm for problem-solving, a curiosity about basic principles and the ability to communicate professionally with the industrial partners.

These positions are fully funded by the UK government through EPSRC, including a tax-free grant at normal EPSRC rates, and are open only to UK and EU nationals. Please do not apply if you do not meet this nationality restriction.

To apply for one of these positions, please send a CV and covering letter to Dr Julian Allwood, Department of Engineering, Mill Lane, Cambridge, CB2 1RX. Email: jma42@cam.ac.uk

Quote Reference: NA04710, Closing Date: 20 March 2009

Interview Date(s): Selected candidates will be interviewed during March and April 09.

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