Mon, 17 October, 2022
NSIRC and Lloyd’s Register Foundation (LRF) PhD student Arunima Bhuvanendran Nair Jayakumari, has completed a 10-day summer school programme at the 17th Oxford School on Neutron Scattering, held at the University of Oxford.
The summer school programme covered lectures and tutorials by a panel of international scientists and engineers, covering the theories and practices of neutron diffraction and spectroscopy.
Arunima’s attendance on the programme supports her research title, ‘Design of Materials for Hydrogen Services (MaHy),’ awarded by the University of Leicester.
Design of Materials for Hydrogen Services (MaHy)
Through this research project, Arunima aims to develop an understanding of materials behaviour in hydrogen for different alloy systems, and to quantify the hydrogen embrittlement (HE) behaviour of metallic materials in hydrogen charging atmospheres under different slow strain rate conditions.
During the research, testing will be carried out at the TWI Ltd laboratories in Cambridge, to check the hydrogen pickup away from charging surface by non-invasive, non-intrusive in situ measurement of hydrogen permeation.
A Devanathan-Stachurski (DS) cell will be used to measure the hydrogen diffusion parameters through the alloy systems.
The outcome of this study is being watched by multiple industries, including aerospace, aviation, transportation, energy, and food, as the results stand to provide more efficient ways for hydrogen production, consumption, and storage.
Arunima said, “The 10 days were amazing as it was all about learning, getting an in-depth knowledge about the technique which I will be using in the later part of my PhD, interacting with experts and students from all over the Europe, and having fun!"
"Apart from the usual lectures we had evening lectures which were brilliant and engaging, proposal writing sessions that helped me to get an idea about writing a successful proposal which is crucial for getting beam time for experiments, and a tour to ISIS."
ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, based at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire.
"I couldn’t have asked for a better experience than the 10 days I spent at Oxford. Thanks to my supervisors Prof Hong Dong and Dr Shiladitya, and thanks to University of Leicester, LRF and NSIRC,TWI for their continued support."
Arunima Bhuvanendran Nair Jayakumari
Supervision for this PhD is being provided by Dr Shiladitya Paul, Research & Product Development Programme Manager at TWI Ltd and Director of the Materials Innovation Centre. and Prof Hongbiao Dong from the Materials Engineering Department at the University of Leicester.
Arunima's latest research was presented at the NSIRC Research and Innovation Conference 2022, and prior to starting her PhD journey, Arunima completed her undergraduate and MSc in Chemistry from the University of Kerala, India.