Fully Funded EPSRC and Swansea Bay City Deal PhD Scholarship: Flexible Polymer-Based Sensors for Structural Health Monitoring in Renewable Energy-Generating Devices

Funding providers: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Swansea Bay City Deal regional investment fund

Subject areas: Materials Science/Engineering; Polymer Science/Physics, Chemical Science/Engineering

Project start date: 

• 1 July 2023 (Enrolment open from mid-June)

Project description: 

A Wave Energy Converter (WEC) harvests clean and green energy from ocean waves. Traditionally, they use multiple rigid bodies, but there is significant cost potential from use of flexible membranes (mWEC) as the main interaction with the waves. Survivability and reliability of these highly deformable membrane structures is a key concern. An mWEC operating underwater experiences multiple modes of deformations (tension, compression, bending/twisting; in- and out-of-plane deformations) during its service life. Hence, ensuring reliability of membrane structures through constant health monitoring in damage-prone areas using stretchable sensors is an ideal choice. However, the integration of stretchable sensors in mWEC face several challenges, i) design of multi-modal sensor networks that can simultaneously capture in-and out-of-plane deformations, ii) arrangements of sensor electronics in submerged conditions and iii) experimental validation of sensor’ responses mimicking sub-sea conditions using a recently purchased multi-axial test rig. The sensors will also be applied to monitoring wind turbine blades. We will address the aforementioned scientific challenges in this project.

Resources: The PhD student will take advantage of state-of-the-art soft polymer fabrication (3D/4D printing), soft materials characterisation (i.e. thermo-electro-mechanical testing rigs) equipment, and test rigs for composite materials developed by the group.

Eligibility

Candidates must normally hold an undergraduate degree at 2.1 level (or Non-UK equivalent as defined by Swansea University) in Engineering or similar relevant science discipline. 

English Language requirements: If applicable – IELTS 6.5 overall (with at least 5.5 in each individual component) or Swansea recognised equivalent. 

Due to funding restrictions, this scholarship is open to applicants eligible to pay tuition fees at the UK rate only, as defined by UKCISA regulations.  

Funding

This scholarship covers the full cost of UK tuition fees and an annual stipend of £17,668.

Additional research expenses will also be available.

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