materials
Rob Lancaster

Professor Robert Lancaster

Professor, Materials Science and Engineering

Telephone number

+44 (0) 1792 295965

Email address

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Welsh language proficiency

Basic Welsh Speaker
Administration Office - 015
Ground Floor
Institute of Structural Materials
Bay Campus
Available For Postgraduate Supervision

About

Professor Robert Lancaster is a Chair in Materials Science within the Institute of Structural Materials (ISM) at Swansea University (SU), currently leading a 10-member strong team of researchers focussing on thermo-mechanical fatigue (TMF) additive technologies and small punch testing (SPT). His current grant portfolio has a total value of over £2.25M on projects funded by EPSRC, Horizon 2020, Clean Skies 2, Innovate UK, ATI, NRN and M2A, in collaboration with a number of leading research institutions and companies including Rolls-Royce plc., Rolls-Royce Nuclear Submarines, GKN Aerospace/Additive, TWI NDT Validation Centre, Cummins Turbo Technologies and the University of Sheffield. These collaborations have primarily concentrated on the mechanical performance and structural integrity of additive manufactured (AM) materials, and implementing the relevant methodologies capable of replicating true in-service conditions.

Professor Lancaster is a pioneer in the use of SPT methodologies and their application to additive structures and has developed a unique SP fatigue testing capability unrivalled across the world. He has been officially recognised as the UK national expert for SPT, is a board member of the BSi ISE 101/01 Uniaxial Testing Committee, Secretary of the IOM3 Structure & Properties of Materials Committee and IOM3 Particulate Engineering Committee. He has published over 60 journal and conference articles, an invited book chapter on SP creep and guest edited two special editions of the journal Materials, focussed on SPT and the mechanical properties of additive structures. This led to Professor Lancaster chairing the 5th International Small Sample Test Techniques conference (SSTT2018) convened in Swansea, Wales in July 2018. This biennial series of conferences provides the dominant platform for disseminating research on small scale testing technologies with SSTT2018 attracting over 80 delegates from 15 countries with over 50 papers published in the conference proceedings, for which Professor Lancaster acted as the Principal Editor. Furthermore, he guest edited a special issue of the journal Theoretical & Applied Fracture Mechanics that captured some of the recent breakthroughs that were presented at the conference.

Areas Of Expertise

  • Miniaturised Testing
  • Additive Layer Manufacturing (ALM) processes
  • Nickel Superalloys (single crystals, polycrystalline)
  • Thermo-mechanical Fatigue
  • Fatigue Lifing
  • Failure Analysis
  • Non-Destructive Evaluation
  • Titanium Alloys