Research Fellow in Design and Qualification of Austenitic Steels for Creep-Fatigue

The long-term structural integrity of steam generators in high-temperature reactors critically depends on the performance of advanced austenitic stainless steels, particularly under creep and creep-fatigue conditions. However, the conventional development of such alloys has relied heavily on trial-and-error exploration of a vast compositional space defined by elements such as Fe, Cr, Ni, Mn, and Mo. Although this approach has led to the development of alloys such as Type 316, Alloy 617, 800H, and 709, the process remains slow, expensive, and inefficient.

Creep-fatigue represents a complex interplay of creep, fatigue, oxidation, and thermal aging. This complexity makes fully rational design of materials based on physical principles, using the “bottom-up” multi-scale approach, a formidable challenge. To address this, you will adopt a novel "top-down" strategy, directly opposed to the current materials discovery methods, to accelerate materials development for creep-fatigue environments. Specifically, you will work independently and as part of a collaborative team to achieve the project objectives:

• Design new alloy compositions with improved phase stability by employing a coupled combinatorial experimentation and thermodynamics calculations.
• Establish a high-throughput bulk materials processing route to enable efficient characterisation and parallel testing of multiple compositions.
• Develop a high-throughput creep-fatigue testing procedure, integrated with full-field strain measurements at high temperature, to efficiently evaluate material performance.

You should have the relevant educational background or work experience in metals and alloys, namely, alloy design principles and CALPHAD approach, directed energy deposition additive manufacturing, characterisation techniques (e.g., scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction), high-temperature mechanical testing. You should have a strong motivation to conduct interdisciplinary research at the interface of materials science, data science, and manufacturing. You should have interest in or experience with data-driven methods, including machine learning, Python programming, or data curation. Regular reports of research progress are required and research plans should be adjusted accordingly. There will be opportunities to supervisor multiple PhD students as a member of supervisory team.

Applicants are required to have a PhD*, or equivalent professional qualifications and experience in materials science, engineering or a relevant discipline.

Equality, diversity and inclusion are central to the ethos in the School of Engineering. We give full consideration to applicants who wish to work flexibly including part-time and due consideration will be given to applicants who have taken a career break. The University has onsite childcare facilities and we foster a good work-life balance. We also offer a mentorship programme and the school runs a women-oriented network event on a bi-weekly basis.

The University of Southampton is in the top 1% of world universities and the top 10 of the UK’s research-intensive universities. We are committed to sustainability and being a globally responsible university, with the principles of sustainability embedded into all aspects of our individual and collective work, in our business planning, policy-making, and professional activities.

For further information please contact Prof Bo Chen (b.chen@soton.ac.uk)

*The title of Research Fellow will be applied upon successful completion of the PhD. Prior to the qualification being awarded the title of Senior Research Assistant will be given.

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