Sarah Sherry
PhD Student - University of Manchester
Project Title: Understanding the relationship between a-loops and c-loops in Zircaloy-2.
Sarah Sherry completed a degree in Materials Science at the University of Manchester, before taking a role at Jacobs. She continues to work at Jacobs, while studying for her PhD part-time at the University of Manchester. Due to the existing links between Sarah’s team at Jacobs and the MIDAS group, this PhD project represents a great opportunity to directly combine academic and industrial research and development.
Sarah's PhD project will focus on (S)TEM analysis of proton- and neutron-irradiated Zircaloy-2, including detailed study of both irradiation conditions in order to gain greater understanding of the nature and formation of a-loops and c-loops.Detailed analysis of neutron-irradiated Zircaloy-2 (from the BOR-60 samples) will be carried out for the five different neutron fluences available. The aim of the analysis is to provide a comparison with proton-irradiated material and develop a better understanding of the irradiated microstructure from low- to high-neutron fluence, including loop analysis, second phase particle dissolution and migration of Fe, Ni and Sn.
The PhD project will be aligned with Research Associate at Manchester focusing on S(TEM) analysis, and the Research Associate based at Culham undertaking atomistic modelling, with the latter project determining the possibility of c-loop formation from aligned vacancy a-loops.