Welcome to the home pages of the Experimental Micromechanical Characterisation Research Group, including Dr Ben Britton and team.
We are a group of researchers specialising in materials science and engineering, primarily of metallic alloys and ceramic / metallic composites.
Our core focus is on understanding the properties and performance of materials in difficult and interesting environments, through development and use of tools that characterise the performance of microstructural components within materials.
Our work is primarily experimental, using novel techniques such as high angular resolution electron backscatter diffraction (HR-EBSD) and high spatial resolution digital image correlation (HR-DIC) to track strain and stress at the local scale. We use these to understand microstructural mechanisms and inform models to predict component performance. We also have a number of computational group members, using dislocation dynamics and crystal plasticity methods to understanding materials deformation. Finally, we develop new image processing algorithms to improve our characterisation tools.
We are based within the Engineering Alloys Group in the Department of Materials, at Imperial College London. The Department hosts a large range of sophisticated experimental kit that we use regularly. We also develop and maintain a number of software analysis tools that aid our experimental understanding of real alloy performance.
