Projects

Started

Basic and strategic applied research

PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Metallurgy and Materials)

Not Cross-cutting

Bo Chen
University of Southampton

Standard

EPSRC

29 September 2025

29 July 2027

22 months

£258,740

Unknown

South East

NC : Engineering

Bo Chen, University of Southampton

This project aims to pioneer an integrated, high-throughput approach for accelerating the design and qualification of new austenitic steels for creep-fatigue environments. The key objectives are: Design new alloy compositions with improved phase stability by combining combinatorial experiments and computational thermodynamics modelling. Establish a high-throughput bulk materials processing route to enable efficient characterisation and parallel testing of multiple compositions. Address the low-throughput limitation of creep-fatigue testing by leveraging full-field strain measurement techniques to analyse a single sample containing multiple compositions. It is fully aligned with the vision, and now requires the capital investment underpinning the “Materials 4.0” Big Idea, put forward by the Royce to the EPSRC, emphasising the need for integrated tools, protocols, and methods to accelerate materials discovery, testing, and characterisation. By working with the Royce my aim is to shorten the development cycle for new materials, which typically spans 10-20 years for safety-critical applications at present. This lengthy timeline poses a significant barrier to meeting our 2050 net-zero commitment. This project proposes a ground-breaking solution: an integrated, high-throughput framework designed to accelerate materials innovation. The UK’s next-generation high-temperature nuclear reactor (HTGR) offers an ideal environment to showcase this novel approach due to its far-reaching impacts, and unique regulatory conditions compared to other sectors. Specifically, the HTGR design requires a safe and efficient heat transfer system with a 60-year lifespan, making the long-term integrity of heat exchangers and boiler components critical. The principal degradation mechanism is creep-fatigue, a significant material challenge that must be addressed during the design phase. The PI, a newly appointed Professor at Southampton, currently lacks the full range of facilities and resources required to realise the project aim. By utilising the Advanced Metals Processing (AMP) facilities at Royce and collaborating with the AMP Area Leads, this project will enable the manufacturing of samples with tailored compositional gradients. Further, Southampton's expertise in combinatorial approach for thin-film material synthesis and screening will be leveraged to intelligently bypass its intrinsic scale-up limitations. Additionally, Southampton’s full-field measurement capabilities will be fully utilised to enable the simultaneous verification of creep-fatigue behaviour in multiple compositions on a single sample, significantly overcoming the constraints of conventional low-throughput testing methods. This collaborative effort not only unites complementary expertise and resources of different institutions but also creates synergies that amplify the impact of each contribution. Our vision is a step-change in development time and cost savings associated with materials innovation. While this project focuses on advanced nuclear fission, the high-throughput methodology developed will benefit a broader community, including those working on fusion, ultra-supercritical power, conventional power plants requiring fuel flexibility, long-term operation of advanced gas-turbines, and petrochemical plants. As a result, this project will also benefit the Royce in its mission to accelerate the introduction of new materials into industrial applications. This project is inherently interdisciplinary and directly addresses the challenges facing next-generation nuclear, which is essential for enhancing the environmental and economic benefits. By successfully overcoming the creep-fatigue material challenge, this project will unlock the full potential of HTGR technology, enabling the elevated nuclear heat to decarbonise the hard-to-abate sectors, which currently generate 25% of global energy-related CO2 emissions. In terms of applications, our accelerated materials discovery framework is ultimately linked to both national and international drivers, such as the transition to zero carbon, sustainable materials and manufacturing, and the circular economy

14/01/26