Professor Michael Preuss

Michael Preuss is currently Director of the Materials Performance Centre and Deputy Director of the Nuclear Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre in Manchester. He is also Theme Leader for the High Temperature Materials activity within the University of Manchester Aerospace Research Institute (UMARI). From 2011, he will be an EPSRC Leadership Fellow.

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 industry. 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.

• Residual stress and metallurgical characterisation of friction welded aeroengine materials
• Process modelling of inertia friction welding
• Texture evolution in Zirconium alloys
• Precipitation and matrix chemistry characterisation of Zirconium alloys
• Internal stresses and failure mechanisms in TiAl-based and burn-resistant Ti-alloys
• Laser net shaping of superalloys
• A new way of measuring plastic strain using Electron Back Scatter Diffraction

• J. Romero, M. Preuss, J. Quinta da Fonseca. Capturing the texture changes in a zirconium alloy during the allotropic phase transformation. Scripta Materialia. 2009; 61: 399-408.
• P. Frankel, M. Preuss, A. Steuwer, P.J. Withers, S. Bray. Comparison of residual stresses in Ti-6Al-4V and Ti-6Al-2Sn-4Zr-2Mo linear friction welds. Materials Science and Technology. 2009; 25: 640-650.
• R.J. Moat, A.J. Pinkerton, L. Li, P.J. Withers, M. Preuss. Crystallographic texture and microstructure of pulsed diode laser-deposited Waspaloy. Acta Materialia. 2009; 57: 1220-1229.
• J. Romero, M.M. Attallah, M. Preuss, M. Karadge, S.E. Bray. Effect of the forging pressure on the microstructure and residual stress development in Ti-6Al-4V linear friction welds. Acta Materialia. 2009 October; 57: 5582-5592.
• A. Steuwer, J.R. Santisteban, M. Preuss, M.J. Peel, T. Buslaps and M. Harada. Evidence of stress-induced hydrogen ordering in zirconium hydrides. Acta Materialia. 2009; 57: 145-152.
• B. Grant, M. Preuss, P.J. Withers, G. Baxter, M. Rowlson. Finite element process modelling of inertia friction welding advanced nickel-based superalloy. Materials Science and Engineering a. 2009; 366-375.
• A M Korsunsky, G M Regino, D Nowell, M Karadge, B Grant, P J Withers, M Preuss, G Baxter. Inertia friction welds between nickel superalloy components: analysis of residual stress by eigenstrain distributions. The Journal of Strain Analysis for Engineering Design. 2009; 44: 159-170.
• W. Li, P.J. Withers, D. Axinte, M. Preuss, P. Andrews. Residual stresses in face finish turning of high strength nickel-based superalloy. Journal of Materials Processing Technology. 2009; 209: 4896-4902.

http://intranet.materials.manchester.ac.uk/undergraduate/learningmaterials/preuss/