Initiation of research collaboration with RWTH Aachen University on microstructure-mechanical failure-tribology relationships

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This project is proposed to initiate collaborative research with RWTH Aachen University (Germany) on microstructure - material failure - tribology relationships. The team at RWTH Aachen University led by Prof. Ulrich Krupp (Head of the Institute of Ferrous Metallurgy) is specialized in the area of microstructure engineering for advanced alloys and new steels with focus on mechanical properties and failure control. The applicant's team is making great efforts to develop advanced wear-resistant (or tribo-) materials such as wear-resistant steels and high-entropy tribo-materials. The development of research collaboration would be of significance for the Canadian and German teams to have deeper insight into the wear-resistant materials and structural materials that they are working on from different angles and optimize the materials based on joint complementary expertise. In addition, the collaboration would help widen the application range of the advanced materials from, e.g., steel making and manufacturing to oil & gas and mining industries. The applicant obtained a RWTH Aachen University - University of Alberta senior research fellowship in 2020. However, due to the covid-19, planned research collaboration with RWTH Aachen could not move forward. This NSERC catalyst project would help achieve planned interactions towards long-term collaboration. With this catalyst project, we will carry out preliminary research and identify tasks for follow-up collaboration. A NSERC international collaboration project will be proposed soon. The collaboration would help both sides to develop complementary expertise and advanced materials for widened applications, benefiting more technical sectors for both Canada and Germany. The project will also help our HQPs to gain globalized vision and high-level comprehensive skills. The applicant and HQPs in his team will visit RWTH Aachen and also accommodate German visitors at U of A to enhance the research collaboration.