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Projects: Projects for Investigator
Reference Number EP/V001809/1
Title Practice and theory in the design of martensitic steels
Status Started
Energy Categories Renewable Energy Sources(Ocean Energy) 2%;
Renewable Energy Sources(Wind Energy) 2%;
Energy Efficiency(Transport) 2%;
Not Energy Related 94%;
Research Types Basic and strategic applied research 100%
Science and Technology Fields PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Metallurgy and Materials) 100%
UKERC Cross Cutting Characterisation Not Cross-cutting 100%
Principal Investigator Professor WM Rainforth
No email address given
Engineering Materials
University of Sheffield
Award Type Standard
Funding Source EPSRC
Start Date 01 March 2021
End Date 31 October 2024
Duration 44 months
Total Grant Value £446,772
Industrial Sectors Aerospace; Defence and Marine; Transport Systems and Vehicles
Region Yorkshire & Humberside
Programme NC : Engineering
 
Investigators Principal Investigator Professor WM Rainforth , Engineering Materials, University of Sheffield (99.999%)
  Other Investigator Dr P Gong , Engineering Materials, University of Sheffield (0.001%)
  Industrial Collaborator Project Contact , SKF Engineering & Research Services B.V., The Netherlands (0.000%)
Project Contact , Rolls-Royce PLC (0.000%)
Project Contact , ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe, Germany (0.000%)
Web Site
Objectives
Abstract Written records of the quenching of steel exist as early as the first century of the European Iron Age.In Homer we find "... As when the smith an hatchet or a large axe ... plunges the hissing blade deep in cold water: whence the strength of steel ..."Archeological evidence for quenched and tempered steel exists from several centuries earlier. Tempering has been regarded as essential in order to mitigate the extreme hardness and brittleness of as-quenched steel. On the other hand the strength limit has been reached in low cost hardened martensitic and hard-drawn pearlitic steels.We propose to push the envelope making the radical move of dispensing with the tempering step and designing new multiphase, as quenched, tough, lean (low cost, resource efficient) steel (MATLeS). The key is to exploit recently acquired understanding of the plasticity of body centered cubic metals; work hardening; and interplay between dissolved carbon, dislocations and metal carbonitrides. This will be put together with novel state-of-the-art experimental techniques: in particular precession electron microscopy and tensile stress relaxation. In powerful combination these will furnish us with the means to manipulate and exploit the hierarchical lath martensite microstructure (HiLaMM). The new steels we design will have excellent green credentials: resource efficiency, recyclability, high strength-to-weight ratio. Our vision is toward the electric vehicle economy, light-weighting of structural offshore wind farm components and super-strong cables for undersea and civil engineering projects. Making full-circle, our outcomes will inform modern theories in materials science, advancing solutions to one of the world's outstanding scientific questions: what is the nature of work hardening? (Why can I not straighten the poker you have just bent?)
Publications (none)
Final Report (none)
Added to Database 08/11/21