Testing

We have materials and now we need to check they have the required properties. How do we know they will work before we put them in an engine?

Testing is where we try and copy the conditions inside a jet engine, but in a very controlled way. By doing this we find out lots of information about how a material will respond to being inside a jet engine, which also means we can then tweak it’s properties to get the best performing material for the component.

At the ISM we work with, and share a building with Swansea Materials Research & Testing or SMaRT. All our testing goes through SMaRT so it is accredited and of a standard acceptable for industrial and commercial use. This means that as researchers we use the equipment and facilities of SMaRT, and in doing so we are trained to a commercial standard. This is one of the strengths of the ISM as we have academia and commercial industries working together making sure our research provides useful outcomes and solutions that one day end up in jet engines.

Tests done through the ISM and SMaRT include tensile, fatigue (LCF, HCF and Environmental), Creep (Constant Stress and Constant Load), Thermo-mechanical Fatigue, and Small Punch. The ISM and Swansea University also has facilities for post-test analysis including SEM, EBSD, EDX, TEM and Optical microscopy.