Light weight armour materials are becoming increasingly important due to the need for increased personnel protection and also the move towards light, faster, more fuel efficient vehicles. Current armour usually consists of a number of individual materials sandwiched together. This can lead to heavy sections that are complex to manufacture, replace or repair. Metal Matrix Composities (MMCs) have been shown to display improved strength, stiffness, hardness, wear and abrasion resistance, lower thermal expansion coefficients and better resistance to elevated temperatures and creep compared to the matrix metal, whilst retaining adequate electrical and thermal conductivity, ductility, impact and oxidation resistance and may be an ideal material for armour applications. Traditional approaches to making MMCs, result in materials with microstructures consisting of discrete particles, whiskers or fibres dispersed in an otherwise homogeneous matrix metal. These approaches yield problems with obtaining a high enough reinforcement phase content which limits potential applications as a result of the increased costs and, more importantly, the development of anisotropic properties.Recent work at Loughborough University under EPSRC grant GR/S15471 has demonstrated that it is possible to infiltrate ceramic foams with densities in the range 5-50% of theoretical with a range of aluminium-based molten metals to form interpenetrating composites (IPCs). The foams, developed by the same research team, have fully dense pore walls and struts, which provide high strength, whilst the pores are fully connected by windows making them suitable for a range of applications, including infiltration. The composites produced have both the ceramic and metal phases fully connected in all three dimensions, yielding a material that not only has isotropic properties but a true mix of the ceramic and metal properties. These properties can be modified by varying the composition, density and pore sizes of the foams, by varying the foam density across a section and infiltrating different metal alloys.Recent preliminary has shown that these IPCs have the potential to fulfil the need for an armour material. Not only have they been shown to have useful ballistic properties but are also lightweight and easy to manufacture in a range of shapes. Work is now needed to:-Scale up the processing of the composites to allow full sized test pieces to be manufactured. These will have a range of cell sizes and ceramic contents and will be infiltrated with two different aluminium alloys.-As many armour solutions are made up of a multi-layered system, this technology is ideal for adaptation to producing a fully integrated layered structure. By varying the ceramic preform density from fully dense to semi-solid followed by metal infiltration it will be possible to manufacture two layer (IPC-metal) and three layer (ceramic-IPC-metal) materials. This type of structure negates the need to glue separate materials together, improving the overall properties of the structure.-For full realisation of these materials for ballistic applications extensive testing is needed. In the first instance, laboratory based tests will be used to optimise the material properties followed by full scale ballistic testing by both ADML and Permali. Analysis of the material following testing will be carried out to determine the damage mechanism, area (spread) of damage and the influence of IPC makeup. Two and three layer armour solutions will be developed and tested.-Finally, as we near the point where we can exploit this material commercially, we need to develop a better understanding of end users requirements. Considerable interest is being shown by a number of companies in the area, as demonstrated by the support for this project, who will assist in realising the full potential of these materials. Work is needed fully to realise the use of IPCs which will be addressed in the final task.

This Industrial Doctoral Centre (IDC) addresses a national need by building on the strengths of the existing EngD in Micro- and NanoMaterials and Technologies (MiNMaT) and the University of Surrey's excellent track record of working with industry to provide a challenging, innovative and transformative research environment in materials science and engineering. Following the proven existing pattern, each research engineer (RE) will undertake their research with their sponsor at their sponsor's premises. The commitment of potential sponsors is demonstrated in the significant number of accompanying letters of support. Taking place over all four years, carefully integrated intensive short courses (normally one week duration) form the taught component of the EngD. These courses build on each other and augment the research. By using a core set of courses, graduates from a number of physical science/engineering disciplines can acquire the necessary background in materials. This is essential as there are insufficient numbers of students who have studied materials at undergraduate level. The research focus of this IDC will be the solution of academically challenging and industrially relevant processing-microstructure-property relationship problems, which are the corner-stones of the discipline. This will be possible because REs will interact with internationally leading academics and have access to a suite of state-of-the-art characterisation instrumentation, enabling them to obtain extensive hands on experience. As materials features as one of the University's seven research priority areas, there is strong institutional support as demonstrated in the Vice Chancellor's supporting letter, which pledges 2.07M of new money for this IDC. As quality and excellence run through all aspects of this IDC, those graduating with an EngD in MiNMaT will be the leaders and innovators of tomorrow with the confidence, knowledge and research expertise to tackle the most challenging problems to keep UK industry ahead of its competitors.

We plan to create a world-leading, multidisciplinary, UK Structural Ceramics Centre to underpin research and development of these highly complex materials. Structural ceramics are surprisingly ubiquitous not only in obvious traditional applications (whitewares, gypsum plaster, house bricks, furnace refractories, dental porcelains and hip/knee prostheses) but in hidden applications where their electrical behaviour is also important such as in computers, mobile phones, DVDs etc. Structural ceramics are enabling materials which underpin many key areas of the economy including: energy generation, environmental clean-up, aerospace and defence, transport and healthcare. Key areas where important developments can be made in energy generation include ceramics for plutonium immobilisation and for next generation nuclear reactor fuels, for ion conductors in solid oxide fuel cells, and for storage of hydrogen for the projected hydrogen economy. Porous ceramics need to be developed for heavy metal and radionuclide capturing filters to help with environmental remediation of soil, air and water and for storage of carbon captured from burning fossil fuels. The next generation of space shuttles and other military aircraft will rely on ceramic and composite thermal protection systems operating at over 2000C. Ceramic coatings on turbine blades in aircraft enable them to function at temperatures above the melting point of the metals alloys from which they are mostly made, and improved ceramics capable of operation at even higher temperatures will confer improved fuel efficiency with environmental benefits. Our troops need improved personal body & vehicle armour to operate safely in troubled areas and the latest generation of armour materials will use ceramic laminate systems but improvements always need to be made in this field. Ceramic are used increasingly for bone and tooth replacement with the latest materials having the ability to allow natural bone ingrowth and with mechanical properties close to natural bone. It is clear the improved understanding of the mechanical behaviour of ceramics, better and simpler processing and the ability to model structure-processing-property relations over many length scales will lead to significant benefit not just to the UK but to mankind. Our aim is to combine the capabilities of two internationally-leading Departments at Imperial College London (Materials and Mechanical Engineering) to form the Centre of Excellence. The Centre will act as a focal point for UK research on structural ceramics but will encourage industrial and university partners to participate in UK and international R&D programmes. 51 companies and universities have already expressed the wish to be involved with promised in-kind support at over 900K. Research activities will be developed in three key areas: -Measurement of mechanical properties and their evolution in extreme environments such as high temperatures, demanding chemical environments, severe wear and impact conditions and combinations of these.-High Temperature Processing and Fabrication. In particular, there is a need for novel approaches for materials which are difficult to process such as borides, carbides, nitrides, materials with compositional gradients and ceramic matrix composites (CMCs). -Modelling of the time-dependence of deformation and fracture of ceramics to predict the useful lifetime of components. The modelling techniques will vary from treating the material as a homogeneous block down to describing the atomic nature of the materials and links between these approaches will be established.In addition to providing the funding that will enable us to create the nucleus from which the centre can grow, mutually beneficial relations with industry, universities and research centres in the UK and abroad will be developed to ensure that a large group of researchers will remain active long after the period for which funding is sought will have ended.