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The synchrotron at Harwell

PI: Daniel Eakins

Department: Engineering Science

This secondment will use a cutting-edge, time-resolved X-ray radiography method recently developed by Prof Eakins at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF, France) to overcome longstanding challenges in the measurement of material deformation in samples subjected to high-rate and shock loading. Understanding the properties of materials under the extremes of pressure, temperature and strain-rate induced by shock-compression is profoundly important to the performance of aerospace materials, an appreciation of how planetary bodies are formed through impact, improving explosive mining methods, defence scenarios, and ultimately understanding the fundamentals of mechanical deformation.

This secondment will allow for the translation and application of the world-class dynamic X-ray radiography method and analytical techniques to materials physics problems of interest to the project partner. This transfer of knowledge will provide  the partner with difficult-to-access data to test and improve their in-house modelling capabilities and sharpen their experimental methods over the course of one year through several experiments, which is a significantly accelerated application of the technique than would be achieved through the partner working as an independent collaborator.

Moreover, the secondment will provide the secondee with access to otherwise-unavailable world-class modelling codes and analytical techniques, yielding stronger results for both the partner and the secondee than could be achieved by either party working alone. This secondment will also help establish the dynamic radiography method as a permanent fixture at ESRF for industrial and academic users. Accordingly, it is envisioned that this secondment can help to increase industrial participation in EPSRC funded research at ESRF, capitalising on a recent boom in the dynamic loading community’s interest in emergent X-ray techniques.

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