PhD Studentship in the Development of Novel Radiation Tolerant W Alloys for Nuclear Fusion

A 3.5 years joint industry funded PhD studentship is available within the School of Metallurgy and Materials at the University of Birmingham to develop new tungsten alloys for nuclear fusion. This jointly funded project between Oxford Sigma Ltd and UoB will be supervised by Dr Sandy Knowles and Dr Matthew Lloyd from UoB, and Dr Thomas Davis and Dr Leandro Tanure from Oxford Sigma.

The Materials for Extremes group investigates new alloys for extreme environments from fusion/fission reactors to aerospace gas turbines and concentrated solar power. This involves the design of fundamentally new alloys by computational methods; production through arc melting, powder metallurgy or additive manufacturing; characterisation using advanced electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction techniques; mechanical testing using macro/micro-mechanical methods and failure investigation; and environmental behaviour under oxidation/corrosion and irradiation damage.
Oxford Sigma is a growing small enterprise focussed on fusion materials expertise. OS are active in commercialisation of materials technologies through active partnerships, contracts, and Memorandums of Understanding that will accelerate and enable practical materials technologies into fusion power plants. OS provide strategic support to a range of fusion enterprises in their deployment of materials technologies to future power plants.

The UK is a global leader in fusion technology and has an ambitious target to develop commercially viable fusion energy. The materials used to construct future reactors are exposed to extreme temperatures, plasma erosion and intense neutron irradiation. Tungsten (W) is a leading candidate for components in the divertor, first wall and tritium breeding blanket due to it’s high operating temperature window, low activation under neutron irradiation and it’s resistance to sputtering under exposure to plasma. However, W has a comparatively high ductile to brittle transition temperature (DBTT) a poor fracture toughness and undergoes embrittlement when recrystallised. Radiation damage and transmutation induced embrittlement are major design constraints and may necessitate frequent replacement of irradiated materials, which limits the commercial potential of power plants.

Alloyed W is a promising avenue for improving the performance of W components. Despite decades of development, few W based alloys have been identified with improved mechanical properties. This project will make use of modern alloy development and characterisation techniques to investigate new W alloy concepts including low-activation W heavy-alloys, refractory high entropy alloys and W based bcc-superalloys with the aim of producing improve ductility and tolerance to radiation damage. This project would utilise nanoindentation, small punch testing, and micromechanics to test ion irradiated material which can simulate neutron damage. Such methods also allow the rapid screening to aid in the design & development of next-generation alloys, whilst understanding fundamental material properties that can be used in the development of advanced material models for simulations.

The project builds on existing collaborations between Oxford Sigma and UoB on W alloys for tritium breeder blankets (Project LiFTOFF). Promising candidate materials will be irradiated using the UoB NNUF high-energy proton and neutron irradiation facilities to evaluate the mechanical performance.

The candidate should have a 1st class Undergraduate or Masters degree (or equivalent) in Materials Science, or related discipline. A background in microstructural characterisation and/or mechanical testing would be advantageous.

To Apply please provide: curriculum vitae (CV), Cover Letter summarising your research interests and suitability for the position, and the contact details of two Referees.
Please send to Dr Sandy Knowles (a.j.knowles@bham.ac.uk).

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