Description This project follows on from previous undergraduate projects which assessed material performance working within an established research group based in MAE. The project will include collaboration with – and eventual reporting to – the industrial sponsoring company and hence provide valuable experience to the student relating to working within an industrial context. The work will involve an experimental material testing programme with emphasis on current issues of interests to the industrial sponsor. The project will involve the assessment of durability of alternative surface engineering treatments which are being considered as replacements for the currently used coating for plunger applications within the oil and gas industry. A detailed literature review will be generated to understand basic principles related to corrosion and wear in industrial conditions. Experimental work will involve investigation in which data will be obtained from various analytical techniques, e.g. mass loss determinations, surface profiling inspection and microscopy. Key Objectives

Obtain appreciation of fundamental principles of wear mechanisms Determination of wear mechanisms under different wear conditions Ranking of test materials Provision of information of relevance to industrial sponsor