Mark Carpenter

Areas of expertise

• Composites
• Conventional & Advanced Fuels
• Fuels
• Structures and Materials

Background

Mark’s core interests lie in materials technology and engineering; he has a BSc (Hons) in metallurgy and materials. He started work in a metals users' consultancy investigating materials and component failures from service applications. This led on to research on topics which have included:

• corrosion technology in areas such as crevice corrosion resistance and hydrogen embrittlement in nickel superalloys
• process developments in the manufacture of continuous fibre metal matrix composites by liquid metal infiltration.

He has also designed and developed various instruments, pieces of equipment and prototype machine parts to support project work. These have ranged from a dilatometer to measure the expansion of polymer bonded composites, to a permeameter to measure the interdendritic flow in solidifying castings, to development of mechanisms for flapping flight micro air vehicles.

Current activities

Mark's main research interest is the investigation of the water uptake and shedding characteristics of aviation (jet) fuels. As well as characterising the process, he also considers methods of reducing water uptake and removal of water from fuel systems.

Mark is also interested In composites technology, maintaining expertise in polymer composites with specific responsibility for the Pultrex filament winder at Shrivenham. This has been used to demonstrate the possibilities for reduced resin wastage and reduced use of cleaning solvents in filament winding. It has also been used to develop prototype components and for improvements to the fibre wet-out process. Currently it is being used to produce parts for energy storage systems.

Mark is responsible for leading the Officers’ Petroleum Course at Shrivenham and lecturing on hydrocarbon fuels and lubricants technology to support other courses.

Publications

• Articles in journals
• Conference papers