Dr Zulfiqar Khan, Director of the Sustainable Design Research Centre at Bournemouth University, visited Ashurst Lodge to give a special presentation on the topic of Corrosion and Materials Characterisation, a topic of research in which his group has been particularly active.Zulfiqar started by explaining the excellent research facilities available at his Centre, including up to date experimental equipment. He also explained some of the industrial projects, which the Centre has been dealing with, including those supported by the Ministry of Defence.
Zulfiqar discussed cases in which the state of stress of particular elements interacts with the corrosion process, to increase the damage to these systems. It is difficult to quantify corrosion in most practical applications. Experiments were carried out to determine the effect of temperature and humidity on corrosion.
A special series of tests that were specifically designed for obtaining data to run computer programs was discussed. Bournemouth University School of Engineering has employed the BEASY (Boundary Element Analysis System) in the past to study problems related to contact mechanics.
The talk was followed by a long discussion and it is hoped that the visit will lead to further collaboration between the two Institutions.
Professor Mark Hadfield of the same School was Co-chairman of the International Conference on Contact and Surface Mechanics that was held at the University of Siena in 2013 (http://www.wessex.ac.uk/13-conferences/contact-and-surface-2013.html)
Wessex Institute