Structural Integrity PhD

About the course

Brunel University London has partnered with the National Structural Integrity Research Centre to provide an opportunity for students to undertake in-depth research in combination with the industrial experience of TWI across the varied disciplines essential to structural integrity. Read more here.

Research profile

Considering the expertise and track record of both Brunel and NSIRC-based staff, the following areas have been identified as the main research strengths within in the wider field of Structural Integrity:

Dynamic response of materials and structures (modelling, experimental characterisation and design/optimisation for composites and metals);
Structural health monitoring based on ultrasound wave propagation and acoustic emissions in solids (modelling, experimental validation, signal processing and sensors);
Steel, concrete and hybrid structures (material design, manufacturing, modelling and experimental characterisation);
Fatigue and fracture (modelling, experimental characterisation);
Extreme loading (e.g. fire, earthquake, blast and progressive collapse)
Fluid structure interaction (unboned flexible risers)
Manufacturing (e.g. sheet metal forming, bulk forming, casting, extrusion, 3D printing).

The cutting-edge fundamental and applied research, in the above stated areas provides fertile environment for PhD students. While we welcome all multidisciplinary topics in the area of Structural Integrity, here is a list of potential research areas we would like to supervise:

Anisotropic material modelling: Development of physically based constitutive model for the large deformation response and failure of target materials. This student will build upon existing research at Brunel in this area.
Treatment of uncertainty including errors: Development of a methodology based on regression for characterising the variation in properties such as material properties and propagating this through to the consequent variation in the final structure.
Hybrid spatial discretisation techniques based on coupling of FE and meshless techniques. This (combined with 1,2&3) will enable modelling of challenging problems characterised by failure/damage front, phase change or shock wave propagation.
Material characterisation: how to practically determine material properties including variation for anisotropic materials – potential of using elastic wave propagation as one tool.

Aims

A key aim of the PhD programme is to supply a stream of industry-ready, world-class engineers and scientists in structural integrity disciplines such as fail-safe design, corrosion control, structural health monitoring, ageing asset management and fitness for service.

Employability
Careers and your future

Almost all our successful PhD students get one or more job offers before completing their PhD studies. In structural integrity, we have well established collaboration with a number of industrial partners from the following sectors automotive, aerospace, energy, transport, oil and gas and defence. These include Rolls Royce, Airbus, Augusta Westland, Eurocopter, Jaguar Land Rover, Aston Martin, Mercedes Petronas F1, McLaren F1, Williams F1, Network Rail, AWE, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, BP, Shell, Lloyds Register, Zentech, Dunlop Oil and Marine, and TWI.