Saturn_Nuclear_CDT
UoM_Nuclear
Metal filters play an essential part to ensure containment of nuclear waste and other hazardous products. To prevent gas build-up and pressurisation within storage containers, small breather ports are typically installed, containing either dense metal meshes, metal fibre sheets, or hot-isostatically pressed (hipped) filter materials. These breather ports are essential features in all storage solutions and design choices, and made of corrosion resistant alloys, such as type 316L stainless steel or Ni-based alloys. This ensures long-term durability and functionality, with filter properties ultimately linked to gas permeability, filter efficiency, and corrosion resistance. The latter are important when it comes to storage of nuclear products and radioactive materials, where replacement of filters is inherently challenging due to access restrictions.
This project will provide a better understanding of the effect of environmental parameters on the corrosion behaviour and performance of metal filter media. A thorough mechanistic understanding will be developed, which will allow to assess surface chemistry development, redox reactions, and material lifetime. The same methodology will be applied to test corrosion mitigation strategies, as well as the electrochemical response of materials subjected to demanding corrosion exposure.
This exciting 4-year CDT/PhD project combines the application of photonics-based characterisation techniques with high-throughput corrosion monitoring, electrochemical screening techniques, and the application of novel data assessment strategies. High-fidelity imaging and electrochemical screening will be augmented with state-of-the-art spectroscopic assessment of corrosion reactions. This allows corrosion mitigation strategies to be designed, assessed and implemented, providing real impact across a broad range of engineering applications where these filters are essential (often safety critical) parts of the lifecycle. This project includes application of novel stand-off approaches for the characterisation of corrosion product chemistry, the prediction of expected redox reactions, with assessment of their relevance for high-surface area filter media performance. Novel ideas and assessment strategies to assess the formation of hydrogen gas inside containment vessels will also be part of this multi-facetted project. You will be at the forefront of corrosion science and engineering, being familiar with ideas and techniques no-one has explored before.
The project will run in tandem with a second PhD project at Strathclyde University. The second project will focus on data fusion and further assessment and creation of a digital monitoring framework. Regular visits and short exchange stays at Strathclyde University are included. You will join a dynamic research team at Corrosion@Manchester and the Dalton Nuclear Institute.
