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PhD in High Entropy Alloy Coatings for Corrosion Protection of

Automotive Stamped Steel

Supervisors: Dr Adrian Leyland, Dr Kathy Christofidou, Prof Russell Goodall

Collaborator: Volkswagen
Based at: The University of Sheffield
Stipend: £19,312 in 2022-23 (UKRI at £16,062 in 2022-23 plus £3,250 annual top-up)

Open to: Candidate with a 2.1 or 1st class degree in a STEM discipline

This project is based at the Department of Materials at the University of Sheffield, and is sponsored
by Volkswagen. We are seeking a candidate with a 2.1 or 1st class degree in a STEM discipline.

In the automotive industry, hot stamping of sheet steel is a vital process for the efficient production of
shaped parts. Modern steels for this purpose have been developed to have high strength through
heat treatment, as this allows thinner sheet, and reduced mass, improving the efficiency of cars. Steel
sheet parts necessitate coating protection to allow for improved corrosion resistance to extend part
longevity. Traditionally zinc coatings have been the coating of choice for automotive parts, however,
they are not compatible with the heat treatments necessary for the optimisation of the steel strength,
and new coating materials to protect the stamped sheet from corrosion are vital.

New alloys of the High Entropy Alloy type (systems where there are five or more elements combined,
at similar levels of concentration, such that there is no easily identifiable principal element) have the
potential to address this need. They open up an enormously wide compositional design space,
allowing a greater range of adjustments of properties to potentially be made than in more conventional
systems. Examples of such alloys have been shown to have good corrosion resistance in a variety of
media, excellent mechanical properties, and adjustable melting characteristics, all of which would be
highly desirable in this application.

In this project, we will work with VW Group Innovation to develop and validate novel coating materials
for this purpose. We will use Machine Learning techniques developed in our work

www.metallicsCDT.co.uk enquiries@metallicsCDT.co.uk +44 114 222 5478

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to aid in the design of new alloys, which will be experimentally deposited as coatings. We will
then investigate the phases and microstructure of the materials, and evaluate the behaviour on
exposure to aqueous corrosion and abrasive wear conditions. Promising systems will be
evaluated on automotive steels in the process at VW’s site in Wolfsberg, Germany, and be
further developed for series application.

The Centre for Doctoral Training in Advanced Metallic Systems is a partnership between industry
and the Universities of Sheffield, Manchester and I-Form Advanced Manufacturing Centre,
Dublin. CDT students undertake a 4-year doctorate with an in-depth compulsory technical and
professional skills training programme. Please review our training programme, application
process and full entry requirements at www.metallicscdt.co.uk.

Informal enquires about the project are welcomed, either to enquiries@metallicscdt.couk.or to

r.goodall@sheffield.ac.uk.

www.metallicsCDT.co.uk enquiries@metallicsCDT.co.uk +44 114 222 5478