PhD opportunities in Materials at Leeds (fwd)

                  Krzysztof Jan Huebner

<hubner@IOd.krakow.pl> :-)

Instytut Odlewnictwa
ul Zakopianska 73 telefon (0-12) 2618111 wew 356
30-418 Krakow faks (0-12) 2660870

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 16:36:56 GMT0BST
From: Rik Brydson <MTLRMDB@LUCS-MAC.NOVELL.LEEDS.AC.UK>
To: MATERIALS@LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK
Subject: PhD opportunities in Materials at Leeds

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Cutting-Edge PhD Research Projects in the Department of Materials,
School of Process, Environmental and Materials Engineering at the University of Leeds
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We have a number of research projects which will be of interest to new or recent graduates in
Materials, Chemistry, Physics, Electronics, Applied Mathematics, Computing, Earth Sciences or
related subjects. We have funding, both EPSRC (which require a Class I or II(i) degree) and
industrial funding which is not restricted.

Take the opportunity of joining active and internationally recognised research groups working
on projects of immediate technological and scientific interest.

Initial contact: phone/write/email the member of staff supervising the project or
Dr C Hammond, Postgraduate Tutor, (c.hammond@leeds.ac.uk/ j.bielby@leeds.ac.uk,
Tel: 0113 233 2382/2348).

Alternatively, check out our website: http://www.materials.leeds.ac.uk.
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Project Areas:

o Dr Mark Keane (Chemical Eng.) & Dr Rik Brydson (m.a.keane@leeds.ac.uk)
Low temperature growth of carbon nanotubes over supported metal catalysts.

o Dr Rik Brydson (mtlrmdb@leeds.ac.uk)
Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry of boride/nitride coatings on steels.

o Dr Steve Milne (s.j.milne@leeds.ac.uk)
Spray Pyrolysis of Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) Powders

Structural characterisation of ferroelectric thin films (with RB).

o Professor David Edmonds (metdve@leeds.ac.uk)
Thermal stability and decomposition of retained austenite phase in steels.

Intragranular nucleation of ferrite in steels.

Decomposition of austenite in hyper-eutectoid steels.

Development of fine grained microstructures in alloy steels.

Massive ferrite microstructures in ultralow carbon steels.

o Dr G M Kale (Mining and Mineral Engineering) (g.m.kale@leeds.ac.uk)
High temperature thermal properties of ion-conducting ceramics (with FLR).

Electrical properties of cation conducting materials for sensor application.

The high temperature chemical stability of cathode materials using electrochemical methods.

Structure-thermodynamic property correlation in spinels and their solid solution by
electrochemical methods.

o Dr Bob Cochrane (metrfc@leeds.ac.uk)
Microstructural evolution during rapid solidification from equilibrium in highly undercooled
melts.

Numerical modelling of non-equilibrium solidification phenomena in highly undercooled
melts (with AMM).

o Professor Frank Riley (f.l.riley@leeds.ac.uk)
Microstructural development in ceramics during crystallisation from aluminosilicate liquids,
electron microscopy of developing microstructures; high temperature sintering and creep
behaviour.

o Professor Frank Riley and Dr R Brydson (joint) (f.l.riley@leeds.ac.uk)
Liquid phase sintering of oxide ceramics for wear resistance and high temperature properties:
process mechanisms, rates and microstructure.

Nanoindentation studies on alumina and related composite materials for assessing damage
resistance on the scale of a single grain.

Erosive wear of polycrystalline alumina and alumina composites; the influence of grain
boundary phase composition and residual stresses on wear rates by particle bombardment.

o Dr Andy Tavernor (a.w.tavernor@leeds.ac.uk)
Defect structure - Dielectric property relationships in electrostrictive actuator materials: the
effects of oxygen and lead stoichiometry on the dielectric and electro-mechanical properties
of lead magnesium niobate materials.

Improved processing of sensor & actuator materials: this project builds on the internationally
leading work at Leeds on the production of ultra dense sensor and actuator materials. A key
aspect of this programme will be the integration of this technology into a commercial
production environment.

Grain refinement of PMN materials for high tensile strain actuator materials: many modern
applications require at least one surface of an actuator to operate under considerable tensile
strains. The effects of grain refining dopants will be quantified in terms of dielectric and
mechanical properties.

Piezoelectric shear mode viscosity & rheology sensors: piezoelectric and electrostroictive
materials operating under a.c. shear mode conditions are ideal candidates for small solid state
in-situ viscosity sensors. This project addresses the issue of temperature of operation, aiming
to reduce the depoling effects suffered by piezoelectrics by the use of composite
piezo-electrostrictive devices.

Design & optimisation of electrode configuration for high power actuators: the deformation
of actuator materials particularly under high driving fields will be studied via laser surface
profilometry. The effects on performance of altering the electrode configurations and
geometries will be assessed via finite element modelling and resonance analysis.

o Dr Animesh Jha (a.jha@leeds.ac.uk)
The formation of lithium niobate and potassium niobate photorefractive microcrystalline
phases in tellurite glasses for photonic devices.

Design and fabrication of ion-implanted/ion-exchange glasses for planar lasers and amplifiers
(with RB).

Spinel decomposition of chromite spinels from naural sources and its implication on
chromium oxide separation chemistry (with CH).

o Dr Andy Mullis (met6am@sun.leeds.ac.uk)
Computer modelling of microstructural evolution in rapid solidification: this project involves
the development of free boundary techniques, such a phase field, for the study of the
solidification of metals from their parent melt (with RFC).

Computer modelling of particle-particle interactions in aqueous suspensions: this project aims
to further develop molecular dynamic models of particle-particle interactions to predict the
rheological behaviour of ceramic suspensions.

Computer modelling of particle packing in ceramic compacts: novel dimension reducing
algorithms will be studied with a view to increasing the computational efficiency of
Monte-Carlo techniques for simulating particle packing.

o Professor Bob Cochrane (r.c.cochrane@leeds.ac.uk)
The effect of P, Al and other trace elements on the kinetics of microalloy precipitation in
austenite.

Fracture mechanisms in hydrogen charged duplex stainless steels.

Crystallisation of metallic glasses by non-metallic particle leading to nano-crystalline
microstructures.

Effect of inter-bead reheating on the precipitation reactions in pipeline welds.

Kinetics of ferrite formation in C-Mn steels.

o Professor Brian Rand (b.rand@leeds.ac.uk)
Surface chemistry of clay colloidal systems; an industrially funded studentship funded by
Watts, Blake Bearne Ltd.

Structure-Property Relationships in Carbon-containing Refractory Materials; a fully funded
studentship from BRITE-EURAM project in collaboration with 5 European companies.

Structure of new carbon-ceramic alloys for high temperature applications (with RB).

o Dr David Wood (Dental School) (d.j.wood@leeds.ac.uk)
The machinability and microstructure of mica-based glass ceramics (with CH).
Received on Tue Mar 23 07:35:48 1999