PhD Studentship: Understanding Oxide Growth and Decomposition during the Application of Electromagnetic Fields through Advanced Mathematical and Numerical Modelling

Research theme: Materials 4.0
No. of positions: 1

Open to: UK applicants

This 3.5-year project is funded by the School of Natural Sciences and is available for home students; the successful candidate will receive an annual tax free stipend set at the UKRI rate (£20,780 for 2025/26). Tuition fees will also be paid. We expect the stipend to increase each year.

We welcome applications from candidates to work with our interdisciplinary and collaborative team on a project on research and development of innovative surface treatments of advanced engineering materials. You will be based in Manchester at the Henry Royce Institute of Advanced Materials and Innovation which offers an open, accessible and collaborative environment. You will have access to the most prominent academics working on similar topics and training activities that will contribute to developing professional networks.

Understanding the growth of surface oxide films on/in multi-component metallic substrates in electrolyte media is of paramount importance to multiple industrial fields. The presence of these oxide films alters the charge carrying characteristics when electro-magnetic fields are applied and can lead to localised electrical discharges. Complicating the understanding of these systems is the fact that predicting their evolution requires an understanding of multi-component transport phenomena, multi-phase evolution dynamics, solid-state physics, fluid dynamics, solid-dynamics, and fracture/degradation; all in a highly transient and non-linear system. In this project we will extend multi-component, multi-phase field frameworks developed at Manchester to include heterogeneous magnetohydrodynamic phenomena (including current density localisation), solid-dynamics and fracture mechanics. The development of such a robust mathematical framework, and numerical implementation will allow the construction of a faithful ‘digital-twin’ of these alloy-oxide systems for wide applicability in surface science applications; though initially focussing on aluminium and other light-alloy substrate systems, the developed tools will be widely deployable to any material system undergoing electromagnetic processing. The development of these theoretical tools and their numerical implementations will be supported through high quality experimental data obtained at Manchester.

Applicants should have, or expect to achieve 1st class honours degree or a master’s in Physics, Theoretical physics, Maths or other closely related subject (e.g. Materials Science with evidence of strong computational background and skills).

To apply, please contact the supervisors; Dr Thomas Flint (Tom.Flint@manchester.ac.uk) and Dr Aleksey Yerokhin (Aleksey.Yerokhin@manchester.ac.uk). Please include details of your current level of study, academic background and any relevant experience and include a paragraph about your motivation to study this PhD project.

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