Virtual Certification of Hydrogen-Resistant Materials PhD

Industrial use of hydrogen brings myriads of challenges, some of which are related to the mechanical properties. At 20K hydrogen becomes liquid, which is the preferred energy vector for applications such as long-haul aircrafts, space rockets, and renewable energy storage. Similarly, nuclear fusion reactors will face challenges handling liquid hydrogen and its isotopes. These industries require to design and certify materials and components for cryogenic hydrogen and fatigue damage.

A viable hydrogen economy requires novel engineering approaches to certify the use of materials across temperatures. Traditional certification requires rely on strongly correlative models informed by the survival of components under myriads of experimental tests, which are expensive and hamper progress pace. Hence, industries have shown much interest virtual certification tools that employ mechanistic models to mitigate the need for expensive testing.

This PhD studentship will innovate with a virtual toolbox to rank the resistance of microstructures against fatigue failure under hydrogen environments at multiple temperatures. The work will rely on a novel material-invariant formulation that integrate experimental information and multiscale computational approaches from various metallic materials. The candidate will work closely with modellers and experimentalist to link fundamental research with damage prognosis and deliver work-class research to our industrial sponsor.