I have been at The University of Glasgow since 2012, initially graduating with an MEng in Mechanical Engineering, followed by a PhD in the same discipline, under the supervision of Prof. Andrew McBride. My PhD thesis was titled "Computational modelling of rotary friction welding of advanced aerospace materials". The thesis investigates the rotary friction welding process of nickel superalloys across both the macro- and mesoscopic lengthscales, using both commercial and open-source finite element software: conventional finite strain thermoelastoplasticity with contact in Abaqus and a non-isothermal formulation of a phase-field model accounting for multiple grains, phases, and chemical species implemented in MOOSE.
During the completion of my PhD, I briefly held positions as a research assistant (May-Aug 2020) on an EPSRC Impact Accelerator Account (IAA) funding grant and as a research associate (Jul-Dec 2022). The IAA project aimed to build upon the framework developed as part of my PhD to account for more complex geometries and boundary conditions, assisting in its industrial adoption. While writing up my thesis, an opportunity arose to work with Dr Ankush Aggarwal on identifying hyperelastic material models through the sequential thresholding of simple least-squares fitting using biaxial tensile test data of human tricuspid valves. It was during this project that I assisted in the development and packaging of pyMechT, a Python package for the quick simulation of biological soft tissues.
Since July 2023, I have been employed at The University as a research associate as part of a £31.4m Rolls-Royce-led project focused on aerospace manufacturing. Working with Prof. Andrew McBride (PI) and Prof. Lukasz Kaczmarczyk (Co-I), the aim is to develop a robust, scalable, and extensible computational modelling framework to simulate the linear friction welding process using the open-source finite element code MoFEM, developed at The University of Glasgow.
