Improving Safety with Advanced Fracture Mechanics

Isabel Hadley: Technology Fellow, Integrity Management Group, TWI

Isabel’s higher education was at Cambridge and Sheffield universities and she has worked at TWI, near Cambridge, since 1992. Her technical work focuses on the development of analytical flaw assessment techniques, and their application to safety-critical structures and pressure equipment. She chairs the committee that develops and maintains BS 7910 (UK flaw assessment procedure), and is a member of the R6 (UK nuclear assessment procedure) panel and co-author of the European FITNET fitness-for-service procedure. In 2016 Isabel took up the additional role of Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor in Integrity Management at the University of Bristol.

Emilio Martínez-Pañeda: 1851 Research Fellow, University of Cambridge

Dr Emilio Martínez-Pañeda is an 1851 Research Fellow at the Cambridge Centre for Micromechanics (University of Cambridge), led by Profs Norman Fleck and Vikram Deshpande. During his 6-year academic career, Emilio has published more than 20 scientific papers (h-index: 11), supervised 6 PhD students, conducted research at 5 leading institutions, and attracted and managed over £1M in research funding. Emilio’s research lies in the fields of structural integrity and environmentally assisted fracture. His pioneering work in the development of predictive models for hydrogen assisted cracking has been recognized through numerous awards and is being implemented in the energy industry.

Chris Aird: Structural Integrity Engineer, EDF Energy Nuclear Generation

After starting out in the automotive industry, Chris studied engineering at Cambridge before joining WS Atkins and working on a range of structural mechanics-related projects, including being part of the Airbus A380 design team and carrying out associated fatigue and damage tolerance calculations. This led to a move to the Solid Mechanics Research Group at Bristol University for PhD studies, followed by time spent as a post-doctoral researcher. Chris joined British Energy (now EDF Energy) in 2010 and is currently responsible for leading the maintenance and development of the R6 procedure, which is used within the UK nuclear industry to assess the integrity of structures containing defects.

Yuebao Lei: Structural Integrity Engineer, EDF Energy Nuclear Generation

Yuebao received his MSc in solid mechanics and PhD in mechanical engineering (1992) in East China University of Science Technology after a year’s postdoctoral research in Imperial College London he joined EDF Energy in 2001 as a structural integrity engineer to develop structural assessment methods, maintain R6 procedure and perform assessment for nuclear power station components. He is a member of R6 panel and a member of BS7910 fracture group panel and strain based assessment group panel. Yuebao is also a visiting professor of Zhejiang University of Technology and has have over 30 year’s research experience on fracture mechanics, damage (fatigue and creep) of materials and assessment technology.

Mahmoud Mostafavi: Reader in Structural Integrity, University of Bristol

Mahmoud graduated from University of Bristol with a PhD on Fracture Mechanics in 2009 and joined Materials Performance Centre at the University of Manchester to study the effects if biaxial loading on the failure of graphite, a project funded by EDF Energy. He then moved to University of Oxford as a James Martin Fellow in 2011 to develop techniques for three dimensional image-based damage mechanics. He was appointed as a lecturer at the University of Sheffield in 2013 and eventually moved back to Bristol in 2015. His research and teaching is in the general field of structural integrity including fatigue, fracture, creep, and corrosion.

Mike Dodge: Principal Project Leader, Materials Engineer, TWI

Dr Michael Dodge has a masters in engineering and a doctorate in metallurgy (‘The effect of heat treatment on the embrittlement of dissimilar welded joints’). He joined TWI LTD as a materials engineer (stainless steels and non-ferrous alloys section) in 2014. He has a particular interest in hydrogen embrittlement of subsea dissimilar joints (low alloy steels-austenitics), but also works with a range of materials, from stainless steels through to nickel based alloys.

David Baxter: Principal Consultant, DNV GL

Fitness For Service Team Lead within the DNV GL UK Gas Technology Business. David is a materials engineer with specialist expertise in the integrity management and life extension of pipelines and structures, predominantly within the onshore and offshore oil and gas industry.

Anthony Horn: Structural Integrity Specialist, Wood Group PLC

Anthony graduated from Cambridge University’s Department of Materials Science in the UK in 1998. Since then he has worked in industry in the field of structural integrity applying and developing defect tolerance assessment methods, initially in the steel industry and more recently in the nuclear sector. He has authored over 150 internal technical reports, safety assessments and research papers covering a wide range of structural integrity issues. His research interests lie in the application of advanced fracture mechanics methods in an engineering context, such as the assessment of crack tip constraint and fracture from notches.

John Francis: Reader in Welding Technology, The University of Manchester

John obtained his first degree and PhD from The University of Adelaide, and is accredited as an International Welding Engineer under the IIW qualification scheme. John began his career in Australia with CSIRO, working on advanced welding processes, before moving to the UK in 2005, where his work has been closely aligned with the power generation sector. John’s research interests focus on understanding how welding processes and procedures impact on the long-term performance of high integrity thick section welds. His research interests cover microstructural evolution in welds and overlays, residual stress development in welds, solid-state phase transformation effects on the development of residual stresses, and the creep performance of welds.

Martin Booth: Core Stress Engineer, Rolls-Royce Submarines

Ravinder Singh: Senior Engineer, Rosen Group

Paul Shard: Director and Principal Engineer, EASL

Paul received a 1st class Masters in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Nottingham in 1988, and began working at EASL in 1998 after a number of years as a consultant and structural analyst working in the North West with Rolls Royce (RRA) and NNC. Working on seismic and structural analysis of various power engineering projects including the shiplift at Clyde Submarine Base (Faslane) and the UK fleet of nuclear plants, Paul has over 30 years’ experience in the industry. Paul is one of EASL’s leading experts on structural integrity assessments and analysis. His specialisms include fracture and creep assessment of pressure vessels and piping using the R6, RSE-M and R5 procedures. Paul represents EASL on R6 Panel, a collaboration of companies who together maintain and develop R6.