The proposed research addresses the key requirements of the aerospace, defence and automotive industries for a step-change in the performance of lightweight materials for greater efficiency, reduced emissions and environmental impact. Two different categories of nanostructured aluminium alloys will be studied: bulk nanoquasicrystalline alloys and nanofibril metal-metal composites, which represent a new and exciting way of achieving elevated temperature capability and high strength in light materials. Small-scale laboratory research on these nanostructured materials has already proven extremely promising, and it is therefore timely to explore their scale-up towards commercial quantities. Moreover, a wholly novel combined nanoquasicrystalline and nanfibril alloy will be studied in order to achieve a lightweight alloy with high strength, stiffness and toughness up to 400C. The project will involve the close monitoring and control of manufacturing conditions, and the use of some of the most advanced nanocharacterisation methods available in order to develop reproducible and reliable materials for subsequent engineering evaluation.We will demonstrate the viability of the materials developed and their associated manufacturing routes for bulk manufacture by testing real engineering components in real applications. In the final year of the programme, alloy composition/process combinations will be chosen for developing demonstrator components such as pistons, inlet valves, compressor blades and plates. We have brought together a partnership between university researchers and industrial scientists from the advanced materials supply chain, in order to ensure the scientific understanding developed is exploited with maximum impact.The research will be undertaken in the Department of Materials, University of Oxford, which is the top 5** rated materials department in the UK. It has a unique combination of near industrial scale processing techniques allied with state-of-the-art characterisation facilities, and an exceptional infrastructure for technology transfer, all of which are key to the success of the project. The industrial consortium provides key resources to manufacture and test final demonstrator components.The proposed research meets the core objectives of the EPSRC Programme building on existing capabilities and expertise and focussing on the large scale processing of novel nanostructured alloys.

IMMPETUS (Institute for Microstructural and Mechanical Process Engineering: The University of Sheffield) was founded in 1997 to undertake truly integrated interdisciplinary research across the disciplines of systems, mechanical and metallurgical engineering, addressing key issues in the metals processing industry. Over the last ten years the unique inter-disciplinary research produced by IMMPETUS has secured national and international acclaim for its systems driven approach to process and property optimisation of a wide range of metals process routes. Using systems engineering we target and optimise experiments to develop basic physical metallurgy in specific areas where knowledge is incomplete, to inform model elicitation, testing and validation. For the complex industrial processes we investigate, there is insufficient basic knowledge to construct true through-process physically based models. In order to cover the intractable factors not adequately described by the existing physically based models, we use hybrid models that merge discrete data, knowledge-based and physically-based models in a unique manner to give unprecedented precision in predictive model capability. All the modelling is verified through the use of a world class array of experimental techniques. The proposal comprises 12 projects which have been constructed in conjunction with our industrial collaborators in order to answer the following questions: 1. How do we formulate a 'generic' framework for 'through-process' modelling to achieve 'right first-time' production of metals?2. Which of the metallurgical and thermomechanical variables affect the microstructure and therefore the final properties of metals, but are not yet fully described by existing models?3. How do causalities (deterministic behaviours) as well as uncertainties (heterogeneities, random behaviours) influence the processing and affect the final properties of metals?4. What are the specific modelling strategies 'best' suited for answering 1, 2, and 3 above?5. Using the elicited models in 4, can we identify the achievable properties for a given process route, and what to do if a particular property is not achievable?6. Using 5, how do we optimise the process route?The programme of work is presented as four themes, all of which are inter-dependent and interwoven. PHYSICAL SYSTEMS will be aimed at developing basic physical metallurgical understanding where knowledge is inadequate, in areas including microstructural heterogeneities, and process conditions that are dynamic and non-linear. In MODELLING SYSTEMS, the physical metallurgy, mechanical engineering and systems engineering will be fully integrated, both through the development of new modelling approaches, and the coupling of existing state-of-the-art modelling that in itself produces new methodologies. PROCESS SIMULATION will involve the upscaling of focused laboratory experiments to accurately and completely simulate the relevant industrial process routes and validate them through appropriate mill trials. SYSTEMS OPTIMISATION will act as a powerful vehicle for integrating these themes and via a careful tuning of model structures/parameters will be core to our technology transfer to our will target specific industrial sponsors and to the wider academic community.