Research in Engineering Alloys utilises both a wide variety of experimental capabilities, as well as the development and application of computational analysis and simulation tools.

There are several resources within the Department of Materials for materials characterisation and experimental processing of materials. Some of our computer programs are now available for public use and may be obtained following the links below:

Resources for Engineering Alloy Research

Computational Simulation

Micromechanical Modelling

A computer program, Eshelby, has been developed for the simulation of plastic deformation of polycrystalline materials.

Mises plasticity codes developed by Professor Dunne.

Characterisation
  • Metallography
  • Electron Microscopy (both SEM and TEM, within the Harvey Flower Microstructural Characterisation Suite). Including SEM based - EBSD, EDX, WDX, and Backscatter Analysis Methods.
  • Image Analysis
  • Thermal Analysis (DSC, dilatometry, cooling curve analysis)
  • Ion-beam Microscopy (FIB-SIMS, tof-SIMS LEIS, FIB-SEM tomography)
Experimental Processing
  • Casting (arc melting, inductionmelting, resitance melting)
  • Heat treatment (50-1300 C)
  • Reflow Soldering
  • Directional Solidification
  • Welding
  • Rolling

 

Mechanical Testing
  • 5kN Zwick screw driven test frame (suitable for travel to international facilities)
  • 2x Hydralic testing frames
  • Amsler high cycle fatigue test frame
  • In-situ nanoindentation systems (SEM + Laue X-ray diffraction)
  • Nanoindentation facilities (within CASC)
International Facilities

We regularly use a variety of international facilities to conduct our experiments, recently the group have used:

  • Diamond Light Source
  • ISIS
  • APS
  • Spring-8

At these facilities we often take our own kit for in-situ measurements, including the 5kN load frame, heating cells and the in-situ nanoindentation systems

Computational Analysis

High resolution EBSD - measuring strains and lattice rotations with high precision.

 

 

You can download the External Lab Users Form‌‌ here. Please fill in and return to Ben Wood (b.wood@imperial.ac.uk)