Dr Nico Larrosa of the University of Bristol has been awarded a prestigious RCUK Catapult Researcher in Residence fellowship, as well as a significant research grant to research structural behaviour in collaboration with industry and academic partners. This work will have applications to life extension programmes for in-service nuclear power plants, as well as for other energy sectors.
Researcher in Residence fellowship
The first award is a Research in Residence fellowship for the category of Transition of Science into Applications to Support the UK High Value Manufacturing Sector. Dr Larrosa's proposal title was The Structural Integrity of Additive Manufactured Vanadium for safety critical applications.
Dr Larrosa, who is a Lecturer in Structural Integrity in the Faculty of Engineering's Solid Mechanics Research Group, will conduct research at the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (NAMRC) and Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) catapults for two and a half years, starting on 1st November 2018.
Speaking about the award, Dr Larrosa said: “We, as academics, need to be aware of UK industrial needs and be major players in the development of solutions for such needs. I believe the RiR fellowship is an outstanding opportunity for me to spend time at NAMRC and UKAEA and work towards enhancing current understanding of the structural integrity of materials for fusion energy applications.”
The NDECA Project
The second award is for over £280,000 for a two and half year project in collaboration with The Welding Institute (TWI), the University of Cantabria, Wood Group, the UK Research Centre in Non-Destructive Evaluation (RCNDE) and the Henry Royce Institute.
The full project title is NDE, DEsign and Engineering Critical Assessments (NDECA): Bridging the gaps and will focus on the development of improved NDE inspection methods and recommendations for fracture mechanics testing methods for non sharp defects.
NDECA takes advantage of the UK's leadership and experience on the development of structural integrity assessment procedures (TWI, Wood, BP), the application of NDE methods for defect characterisation (University of Bristol Ultrasonics and NDT group, TWI and RCNDE members) and experience with FEA damage simulation and testing of non-sharp defects (Larrosa [PI], Wood, University of Cantabria).
Postdoctoral opportunity to get involved
Dr Larrosa will shortly be looking for a Postdoctoral Research Associate to work in this exciting project for 2.5 yrs. Required skills are experience in PAUT and/or non-linear methods. Candidates should also have some fracture mechanics understanding but this is not a must.
Interested candidates can send their CV to Dr Nico Larrosa and will then be invited to apply formally through the University of Bristol website when the vacancy is online.