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Engineering and technology
- Computational materials science
- Metals and alloy materials
Hydrogen embrittlement (HE) is a damaging mechanism resulting from the absorption and diffusion of hydrogen in metals and alloys. It is gaining an increasing interest in recent years both from scientific and socio-economic point of view due to the role of hydrogen in the green energy transition and meeting the targets of the European Green Deal. As such, quantitative understanding and prediction of HE is fundamental to the safety and durability of structures in contact with hydrogen. To this end, the H2BRITTLE project will develop a new computational framework for modeling hydrogen-microstructure interactions at the mesoscale. The framework will combine phase-field method for microstructure generation, advanced hydrogen diffusion and trapping models, and Fast Fourier Transform micromechanical solver to demystify the chemo-mechanics of these interactions. It will be applied to several types of hydrogen-microstructure interactions and validated by comparison with existing experimental results. The project will be implemented in the group of Prof. Kim Verbeken at UGent, which is an internationally top group in the experimental analysis of hydrogen-material interactions. The synergy between the computational framework developed in this project with the experimentally oriented methodologies developed by the group has a strong potential to result in ground breaking research in the challenging field of HE. The group is a member of the Belgian Hydrogen Fundamental Expertise (BE-HyFE) project, which is an excellent opportunity for me to interact with hydrogen experts from academia and industry in Belgium. H2BRITTLE is a seed for a follow up project on the synergistic computational/experimental approach to study HE. The scientific/non-scientific activities in this fellowship will develop me towards an academic career with socio-economically relevant research.