The members of the Oxford Micromechanics & Microstructure Group are interested in how materials (engineered and naturally occurring) respond, at the microstructural level, to externally applied loading - mechanical, thermal, and/or environmental (chemical, irradiation). The complex patterning of local stress and strain distributions and how they evolve and are linked to particular aspects of the microstructure provides many fascinating intellectual challenges. Technical impact comes from building sound understanding and models of how materials fail. This is central to setting safe performance windows and developing new alloys and microstructures with better capabilities.
Our centre of mass is in the Department of Materials, but we also span the Departments of Engineering Science and Earth Science. We work on various materials systems, including those for the nuclear, aerospace, and automotive sectors, as well as minerals. We have also made significant contributions to the development of new testing and characterisation methods, allowing us to gain new insights.
