Research Group(s)

• Engineering and Process Metallurgy
• Materials Performance Centre

Research Institutes

• Dalton Nuclear Institute
• UMARI

Michael Preuss is currently Deputy Director of the Materials Performance Centre and the Nuclear Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre in Manchester.  In 2010, Michael was awarded an EPSRC Leadership Fellowship, which he has started in April 2011.

Michael obtained his PhD from the Technical University Hamburg-Harburg, Germany on creep in two-phase titanium alloys. He joined the University of Manchester in 1999, first working in the field of friction welding nickel-base superalloys and titanium alloys. In 2003, he was appointed a Lectureship in Materials Performance and became a core member of the Materials Performance Centre. During this time he started to build a new research group on zirconium alloys for nuclear application while continuing to work in the field of aeroengine materials. In 2010, Michael was appointed Professor of Metallurgy and is currently member of the ILL Scientific Council.

Michael's research focuses on microstructure, mechanical properties and residual stresses in high temperature materials for the aeroengine and nuclear application. The materials he is particularly interested in are zirconium alloys used to encapsulate nuclear fuel, as well as titanium alloys and nickel-base superalloys, which are used for example in aeroengines. A central aspect of his research is to develop a more physically based understanding of how these complex materials develop their microstructure during processing and the mechanisms that determine their performance. This is achieved by using a range of state-of-the-art analytical tools that enable characterizing material in-situ and in 3D. Particularly important research tools are large-scale research facilities such as the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France and Diamond and ISIS in Oxfordshire, UK. In addition, lab based facility like advanced electron microscopy are used to provide a far more compete picture of materials than ever before.

• Physical metallurgy of high performance alloys
• Zirconium alloys for nuclear application - aspects of processing and performance - understanding the development of texture, corrosion mechanisms, hydrides and irradiation growth and creep
• Titanium alloys - phase transformation, deformation mechanisms, texture and fatigue
• Nickel base superalloys - deformation mechanisms and fatigue
• Residual stress and metallurgical characterisation of friction welded aeroengine materials
• Process modelling of inertia friction welding
• Using advanced neutron difrraction and synchrotron radiation for materials engineering and physical metallurgy
• 3D imaging by x-ray tomography and advanced electron microscopy

Most postgraduate studentships in my area are available via the following Centres for Doctoral Trainins (CDTs):

• www.m4de.manchester.ac.uk/
• www.metallicscdt.co.uk/
• www.nextgennuclear.manchester.ac.uk/