Members

Adam Brown, PhD candidate in the team,  won the national 2013 Young Persons’ Lecture Competition (YPLC) final held in London on 24 April 2013. He will now represent the UK at the world final of the YPLC to be held in Hong Kong in October 2013. Many congratulations to Adam!

Hongbiao Dong, Professor of Materials Engineering 

I received my Bachelor and Masters degree from University of Science and Technology Beijing, obtained my DPhil (PhD) in Materials Science from the University of Oxford.    

I joined the Department of Engineering in 2004 as Lecturer, was promoted to Senior Lecturer, Reader and Professor.  From October 2006 to September 2008 I was seconded to Rolls-Royce as a Royal Society Industry Fellow to develop processing techniques for new aeroengine gas turbine blades. My research interests include: casting and welding, materials modelling, materials thermal analysis and engineering design. My teaching topics cover: Aerospace Materials, Engineering Design and Processing of Engineering Materials

Lee Aucott, PhD Candidate

Upon leaving secondary school, I completed a 4 year engineering apprenticeship at Meggitt Aircraft Braking Systems, with my time being spent in a variety of business areas. I was lucky enough to secure university sponsorship from the company and successfully completed my undergraduate degree at the University of Brighton in 2011 with a 1^st class honours.

Upon completion I was happy to be accepted on to Prof. Hongbiao Dong’s team to pursue a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering. My research, in collaboration with Tata Steel UK, is focused on the assessment of microstructure evolution and defect formation in the welding of deep and ultra-deep sea oil and gas transportation pipelines. It is hoped my research into things such as weld solidification cracking and mechanical properties will allow for better welding techniques and material selection to be employed in Tata Steel pipeline products.

Adam Brown, PhD Candidate

Prior to starting university, I took a year in industry placement at aerospace firm Goodrich Engine Control Systems. I began my degree study at the University of Leicester in 2006 and was awarded a first class MEng in Mechanical Engineering upon completion in 2010. My experiences during this time have led me to begin studying for a PhD, also at Leicester, in which I intend to investigate the behaviour of solid-liquid interfaces in alloy systems during solidification, at micro- and atomic-scales. It is hoped that the outcome of this research will bring a greater understanding of the solidification process and thus allow advances in the design of alloy systems and their manufacture.

Keith F. Carter, Visiting Professor, BSc, PhD, CEng, MIMechE, MINucE, MRINA

Keith is a Royal Academy of Engineering Innovation Visiting Professor.

Keith is the principal consultant and Director of Keimar Consultancy Ltd. He owns the consultancy company with over 12 years trading in the Nuclear and Aerospace Industries as well as general mechanical engineering.  He is a specialist in structural integrity analysis and engineering design. Currently contracted to Rolls-Royce Nuclear Marine and previously to Rolls-Royce Aerospace, British Energy and Advantica for consultancy, stress analysis and lifing.

Huanming Chen, PhD, Visiting Scholar

I graduated from Ningxia University with a BSc in Physics, China in 1993, and obtained my Masters degree from the Chinese Academy of Space and Technology in 1996. I received my PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Science and Technology Beijing.

I am currently a professor in the School of Physics and Electrical Information Engineering, Ningxia University. My research interest is mainly in the area of structural materials and computational materials.

As a visiting scholar, I joined the Mechanics of Materials group of the Engineering Department at Leicester University in March 2013. My work here is to model the microstructural evolution of melts by using the Phase-Field Method.

Huijuan Dai, PhD, Visiting Research Fellow

I obtained my BEng degree from Beijing Institute of Technology, China in 2005 and my PhD degree from University of Leicester, UK in 2009.  I am a Senior Project Leader at TWI Ltd and a Honourary Visiting Research Fellow at The University of Leicester. 

My PhD research is focusing on studying the solidification structure evolution during investment casting of Ni-based superalloys for aero-engine turbine blades. Multi-scale modelling methods combined with experiments were implemented to study the grain selection and solidification structure evolution during investment casting. This work was the first attempt to systematically study the effect of spiral design on the grain selection in single crystal casting. The study not only made a comprehensive investigation on the spiral design and optimisation for the single crystal casting process, but also pointed out the importance of the new design of grain selectors for single crystal castings.

Mike Dodge, PhD Candidate

I obtained a first class MEng degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Leicester, where I am now pursuing a PhD.  I am currently investigating failure of dissimilar weld interfaces in subsea high pressure oil and gas pipelines, in collaboration with The Welding Institute. 

By adopting a combined experimental and modelling approach it is hoped that my research will characterise the failure mechanisms involved, enabling optimisation of welding parameters such as materials choice and heat treatments.

Lisa Hawkins, Senior research project administrator

I graduated from Nottingham Trent University in 1990, with a BSc in Manufacturing Engineering and Business Studies. I am currently studying for an MBA by Distance Learning with the University of Leicester.

I have held a variety of manufacturing-related positions, ranging from shop-floor management to Japanese Management consultancy, with organisations such as ICI, Thorn EMI, Toray Industries and Pera Innovation. I have worked for Prof. Dong since November 2009 as the Senior Project Administrator for the Mintweld Project.

Hua Hou, PhD, Visiting Scholar

Manish Javahar, PhD candidate

I obtained my MEng degree from the University of Leicester in 2009 and I am working at the University with Dr Hongbiao Dong, in partnership with Rolls-Royce plc, to design a novel grain selector for producing single-crystal turbine components.

Jun Liu, PhD, Post-Doc Research Associate

I obtained my PhD degree from the Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Science in 2007. My PhD major is Molecular Dynamics simulation (MD) of rapid solidification in metal and metal alloys.  In June 2010, I joined the Mechanics of Materials group of the Engineering Department at Leicester University, UK as a research associate (Post-Doctor). The main work here is to link MD and Phase-Field simulations to model dendritic solidification in Fe and Fe-C melts. It is hoped that the outcome of the research will bring a deep insight into the microstructural evolution of dendrites in steel melts during the solidification of different welding processes, and refresh the design concept for commercial steel or superalloys. 

Mykhailo Melnykov, PhD Candidate

(under joint supervision with Dr. Davidchack in Department of Mathematics in Leicester)

I graduated from Karazin Kharkiv National University (Ukraine) in 2010, with MA degree from Department of Theoretical Physics. I have started my PhD project in the summer of 2010 under the supervision of Dr. Ruslan Davidchack in Univeristy of Leicester. My PhD is on modelling in a computer the processes of solidification and interface evolution in simple models of metals and alloys using classical molecular simulations.

Baber Saleem, PhD Candidate

I obtained a BEng Aerospace degree (1st Class) from University of Leicester in July 2012 and applied for PhD Research study of 3 years starting from January 2013. I took the opportunity and was lucky to have the EPSRC CASE Studentship Award in collaboration with TWI ltd.

I am currently  working at the University of Leicester with Professor Hongbiao Dong. My research focuses on the microstruture engineering for improved resistance to 'Hydrogen Embrittlement' which has been a persistant problem for decades for the design and integrity of structural materials especially high strength corrosion resistant metallic alloys used in deep subsea Oil&Gas systems. It is hoped that the outcome of this research will form a greater understanding  of 'Hydrogen Embrittlement' mechanism at microstructural scale and helps to develop a rigorous model for predicting when, where and how this problem will occur, which will substantially lead to design of new hydrogen embrittlement resistant materials

Sinan Savas, PhD Candidate

I was born in the city of Kayseri, Turkey. Having completed my undergraduate study in at Gazi University, I embarked on MSc in Design and manufacturing Engineering at Gebze Institute of Technology.

With the scholarship awarded by the Turkish Ministry of Education, I took the opportunity to do my Masters degree at Loughborough University. I am currently doing my PhD at the University of Leicester under the supervision of  Dr. Hongbiao Dong. My research focuses on the design and manufacturing of a novel technique called "Single-pan scanning calorimetry". It is hoped that the outcome of my project will introduce this technique as a commercial product and also provide a better understanding of materials processing. 

Scott Simmonds, PhD Candidate

I obtained my MEng degree from the University of Leicester in 2009 and was lucky enough to be offered a PhD research project upon completion. I am working at the University with Dr Hongbiao Dong, in partnership with Rolls-Royce plc, to investigate a surface defect called Surface Scale which is commonly found on aero-engine turbine blades. It is hoped that this research will form a greater understanding of the factors controlling the formation and growth of Surface Scale on Rolls-Royce’s turbine blades and provide advice on processing to either eliminate or substantially reduce this problem.

Sungwoo Son, PhD Candidate

I obtained my BEng degree in General Engineering from the University of Leicester in 2010. My PhD research is to investigate and develop techniques for measuring the Solid/Liquid interfacial energy. It is hoped that the outcome of my research will bring better understanding of the physical and chemical processes taking place at Solid/Liquid interfaces and this will have a huge scientific impact on studies in the areas of Materials Science, Physics (e.g. fluidity) and Chemistry. The measured data will be used to validate modelling results and also to use as input for process modelling.

Yu Xie, PhD, Post-Doc Research Associate

I obtained my MEng degree from the Institute of Metal Research (IMR), Chinese Academy of Science, in June, 2009. I completed my  PhD studies in the Engineering Department, University of Leicester in early 2013. My PhD research is to simulate the solidification process involved in welding by adaptive meshing phase-field modeling. It is hoped that a phase-field modeling for multi-component and multi-phase could be developed and numerical simulation could be carried out in steels. It is expected that the result would provide advice on alloy design in an economical way. I am currently working as a Research Associate on the Mintweld project.

Jiangtao Xiong, PhD, Visiting Scholar

I obtained my PhD degree from Northwestern Polytechnical University (NWPU) in 2007. From 2007 to 2013, I worked as both an academic and teaching staff member in the School of Materials Science and Engineering of NWPU. My research field is mainly focused on the microstructure evolution of the joining interface in solid state welding, the solidification of the welding pool in melting welding process，and the analysis and assessment of the properties of the joints produced by various welding methods. In March 2013, I joined the group of Prof. Dong, and carried out the research about the solidification behaviours of the welding pool.