Professor Supriyo Ganguly

Areas of expertise

• Welding and Laser Processing

Background

Dr Ganguly joined Cranfield University as a lecturer in welding science in 2008. Previously, he has worked as a research fellow in the Manchester Materials Science Centre and Open University working as part of large consortia of industry and academia. In Manchester, he worked in the DEFUSE (Development of Fusion Welding for Wing Primary Structure) programme and in Open University in the KNOO (Keeping Nuclear Options Open) and MUZIC (Mechanistic Understanding of Zirconium Corrosion) projects. In the DEFUSE programme the main work was to characterise the fusion welded aluminium structure and to characterise the loss in strength and how to improve it through microstructural modification through compositional modification of the filler wire composition. In the KNOO and MUZIC projects his main areas of research were standardisation of residual stress measurement using neutron diffraction, understanding creep response in weld metal and heat affected zone of alloys used in high temperature application. The effects of thermal straining due to multi-pass welding were also studied in these programmes.

Dr Ganguly got his PhD thesis in residual stress measurement of welded aerospace alloys using neutron and synchrotron X-ray diffraction process from the Open University in 2004. In his PhD he combined the strain measurement using neutron and synchrotron X-rays to determine the three dimensional stress state in a welded component. It was part of EPSRC sponsored WELDES project .

He graduated from Bengal Engineering College, Calcutta University,now known as Bengal Engineering and Science University (BESU), India, as a metallurgical engineer in 1994. After his graduation he worked in M/s Usha Martin Industries Limited for 3 years and Tata Steel for 7 years as a metallurgist where he worked in iron and steel making, rolling and then as a technologist in the area of product and process development.

Current activities

His research explores the options of intelligent applications of laser and arc welding technologies based on the fundamental understanding of material interaction with heat sources. At present, Dr Ganguly's research focuses on the application of laser in joining of dissimilar metallic combinations, towards improving productivity and microstructural and metallurgical modification to create defect free sound joints for structural applications. The creation of functional surface layers and structures using arc and laser based heat sources is also an area of interest.

He is the principal investigator of an EPSRC sponsored project on laser joining of dissimilar metallic materials for advanced structural and engineering and co-investigator in the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing for Laser-based Production Processes and High Deposition Rate Additive Manufacture of Complex Metal Parts (HiDepAM). He is also working with several industries in transportation, oil and gas, nuclear, aerospace and medical sectors. Other duties are the supervision of 6 PhD students and 2 post-doctoral research fellows.

His present research projects are:

In the area of joining of dissimilar metallic alloys, where the research aims to understand experimentally the underpinning mechanism of intermetallic formation in fusion welding of different dissimilar metallic alloy combinations and to model the transient thermal field and correlate it with intermetallic formation

Application of laser arc hybrid process can bring a step change in productivity in structural welding applications. Research is focussed in optimising the application of these two complimentary heat sources for specific industrial benefit

Laser assisted arc welding is being explored in the extremely specialised area of deep sea dry hyperbaric welding

Application of local mechanical tensioning and laser processing in multi-pass structural welds

Application of GTAW and powder/multi-wire based processes to explore development of functional layers and coatings

Application of spatially resolved laser shock peening to predict fatigue crack propagation in damage tolerant structures

Clients

• Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
• Ministry of Defence
• Atomic Weapons Establishment
• BAE Systems PLC
• Airbus SE
• Attica Components Ltd
• Heerema International Group Services SA
• Subsea7
• Kloeckner Metals UK (ASD Ltd)
• MAN Energy Solutions SE (Volkswagen AG)

Publications

• Articles in journals
• Conference papers
• Books