Collaborations

Collaborative research forms a core strand of the activity in this group and strong partnerships exist with HE institutions at home and abroad, with central multinational research facilities and with industry. Examples of these are evidenced below.

Professor MN James provided management input (20% of his time) into the Facility for Materials Engineering (FaME38) at the Grenoble site of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) and the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) over the period June 2004 until February 2008. FaME38 is the support facility established to improve and exploit access to the engineering science potential of synchrotron and neutron radiation, particularly in strain scanning where the UK has an international lead. This development was supported by two major EPSRC grants with matching funding from the ILL and ESRF. Professor James was PI on grant EP/C008847/1 (£467,460 in 2005/06) for Phase 2 of this development with a consortium of 12 UK universities. Dr A Steuwer is currently seconded to Grenoble from Plymouth for 80% of his time is buy out for user support by the ILL and ESRF. Dr Steuwer presently spends 50% of his time in Grenoble and is assisting the University of Lund with development of the European Spallation Source Scandinavia for the other 50%. Work on strain scanning led to a keynote lecture at the 3rd Conference on Stress Evaluation by Neutron and Synchrotron Radiation (Santa Fe, NM, USA, 17-19 October 2005) and to a plenary lecture at the 22nd Annual Conference of the Spanish Fracture Group (Almagro, Spain, 9-11 March 2005).
Professor MN James collaborates with the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa on process monitoring and optimisation in friction stir welding (FSW) and in measurement of residual stresses using synchrotron and neutron radiation strain scanning, hole-drilling and laboratory X-rays. Since 2001 this has involved experiments at the ILL and ESRF with a combined value in excess of £650,000 and its outputs include the first invited paper in the journal of the International Institute of Welding (D G Hattingh, T I van Niekerk, C Blignault, G Kruger and M N James (2004), Analysis of the FSW force footprint and its relationship with process parameters to optimise weld performance and tool design, Invited Paper (INVITED-2004-01), IIW Journal Welding in the World, 48 No. 1-2 pp.50-58) to a keynote lecture at a Workshop on Friction Stir Welding sponsored by the European Office of the US army Research Office (Port Elizabeth, South Africa, 1-3 April 2003), and to a plenary lecture at the International Conference on Fatigue Crack Paths (Parma, Italy, 18-20 September 2003).
Professor MN James collaborates with Michigan State University, USA and the Industrial and Engineering Mathematics group at Plymouth on work aimed at coupling multi-parameter mathematical models of a fatigue crack experiencing shielding from its plastic zone with full field photoelastic stress analysis. This work is providing new insights into the origins of crack tip shielding and led to a keynote talk at the 5th International Conference on Fatigue Damage of Structural Materials (Hyannis, MA, USA, 19-24 September 2004). Several joint publications are in press (International Journal of Fracture and Engineering Fracture Mechanics) that present a new model of crack retardation utilising ‘retardation’ stress intensity values.
Professor MN James has had strong CASE support from Corus Research & Development, Rotherham and IJmuiden for several PhD projects and other associated research on improved life prediction for friction stir and fusion welds. Experiments have been performed at the ESRF and ILL to measure residual stresses in joints in the as-welded state and after fatigue loading as a function of process conditions. Part of this work led to the identification of a new type of defect peculiar to FS welds in strain hardened aluminium alloys (M N James, G R Bradley, H Lombard and D G Hattingh (2005), The relationship between process mechanisms and crack paths in friction stir welded 5083-H321 and 5383-H321 aluminium alloys, Fatigue and Fracture of Engineering Materials and Structures, 28 pp.245-256).
Professor MN James has been strongly involved since 2002 with the European and international galvanising community over performance and cracking problems associated with high strength steel alloys. Partners in this work have been the International Lead Zinc Research Organisation (ILZRO), North Carolina, the Galvanisers Association, West Midlands and the European General Galvanisers Association. The work led to research work funded under ILZRO Research Plan ZC21-1, Galvanizing Large Steel Structural Items.
Dr John Summerscales visited the Institute of Advanced Technology at the Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) in September 2004. The trip was funded by British Council Higher Education Links (BCHEL)/Committee for International Cooperation in Higher Education (CICHE) in the context of the Kenaf Fibre Utilisation Project (KL/992/552). Following visits to companies, trade organisations and research establishments, a report was compiled recommending routes forward for the natural fibre industry in the country. The host, Jalaluddin Harun, subsequently received significant funding to set up the national Tropical BioComposite Institute.
Dr John Summerscales and Paul Russell (Peninsula Medical School) analysed x-ray computer tomograph images (taken by Richard Parnas on secondment from University of Connecticut - USA using the equipment at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven - Belgium) of cross-sections of a woven reinforcement polymer matrix composite. The images were each reduced to a single number using the fractal dimension to permit a comparison of the fibre distribution within the material. The reults were published as J Summerscales, P Russell, S Lomov, I Verpoest and RS Parnas, The fractal dimensions of X-ray tomographic sections of a woven composite, Advanced Composites Letters, 2004, 13(2), 113-121.
Dr Marian Aron Since 1968 Dr Aron’s main research interest has been the mathematical theory of materials that can reasonably be regarded as continuous or what is termed Continuum Mechanics. Over the last 50 years remarkable progress has been made in the study of the nonlinear theories of Continuum Mechanics. This study has been motivated by the fact that it has gradually become apparent that the nonlinear theories could describe phenomena which the earlier, linear theories, could not 'see'. Dr Aron’s research efforts have been directed towards finding physically acceptable restrictions that should be placed on constitutive equations in order to ensure successful mathematical analysis of meaningful problems. Dr Aron is a member of the London Mathematical Society and a reviewer for Mathematical Reviews. Occasionally, Dr Aron referees papers submitted for publication to mathematics research journals.
PRISM members have been principal or co-investigators on some 20 TCS/KTP schemes since 2001, involving both major industrial partners such as Parker-Hannefin plc and smaller enterprises such as Smart Manufacturing Ltd.
TCS/KTP projects:

GKN Aerospace (TCS 3067) 2000-2003
Pump International (TCS 3116) 2000-2002
Smart Manufacturing (TCS 3216) 2000-2002
Vortok International (TCS 3720) 2001-2003
Derlite Limited (TCS 3223) 2001-2003
Bakare Beds (TCS 3819) 2002-2003
Plastech (TCS 4198) 2003-2005
Dowty Aerospace (TCS 4274) 2003-2005
Kingfisher (KTP 0182) 2004-2006
Lapmaster International (KTP0403) 2004-2006
Rigibore (KTP0480) 2004-2006
Parker Hannifin (KTP 0976) 2005-2007
Zoeftig (KTP no_tbc) 2007-2009