PhD Studentship: Investigating White-Etching Layers in High-Performance Aerospace Steels

This 3.5-year PhD studentship is open to Home (UK) applicants. The successful candidate will receive an annual tax-free stipend set at the UKRI rate (£21,805 for 2026/27; subject to annual uplift), and tuition fees will be paid. We expect the stipend to increase each year. EU students with settled or pre-settled status and international student can apply but their application eligibility will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

The start date is October 2026.

We recommend that you apply early as the advert may be removed before the deadline.

High-performance steel components for aerospace applications require precision machining to achieve their final geometries. If machining conditions are not kept within specification, then damage to the material can occur, which can be detrimental to fatigue life and other properties. On a microscopic scale, damage from improper machining often manifests itself as white etching layers (WELs), which are observed as thin layers on the machined surfaces of components. These WELs are regions of nano-grained material that are believed to form from severe plastic deformation at the surface during the machining process. Similar white-etching features are also observed in other demanding conditions, such as during the wear of rail steels or fatigue of bearing steels.

There remain some important knowledge and capability gaps that remain unfulfilled regarding the WELs formed during the machining of aerospace steels. These include: (i) an understanding of the methods that can be used to reliably and repeatedly identify and characterise WELs when they form; (ii) the precise nature of WELs in machined aerospace steels (e.g., their mechanical properties) and how they differ from white-etching material found in other applications; (iii) the effect that post-machining processing (e.g., heat treatments) can have on their structure and properties, and (iv) how WELs differ in different aerospace steel grades. This PhD project will seek to address these gaps.

The project will be based at the University of Manchester, in collaboration with Rolls-Royce plc. It will utilise the world-leading electron microscope facilities hosted by Manchester’s Electron Microscopy Centre and the Henry Royce Institute, and benefit from the vibrant and friendly Metallurgy & Corrosion research community at Manchester. Besides subject-specific training, there will be many opportunities for continuous development through training courses offered by the University (e.g., coding skills, writing skills, etc), conference attendance and meetings with the industrial partner.

This project will be supervised by Dr Ed Pickering and Prof Tim Burnett. Please contact ed.pickering@manchester.ac.uk if you wish to apply.  

Applicants should have, or expect to achieve, at least a 2.1 honours degree or a master’s (or international equivalent) in a relevant science or engineering related discipline.

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