About the project
This project explores an eco-friendly “flash carbide” coating for extreme wear environments in military aircraft landing gear. Through advanced tribological testing and materials damage modelling, it will benchmark this new High Velocity Air Fuel (HVAF) deposited coating against conventional High Velocity Oxy Fuel (HVOF) alternatives. The findings would benefit the aerospace industry with cost-effective, sustainable, and high-performance coating solutions.
This project focusses on for sustainable, high-performance coatings for military aircraft landing gear applications, where components face extreme abrasion and erosion during repeated take-offs and landings. Conventional HVOF WC–Co–Cr (Tungsten Carbide, Cobalt and Chromium) coatings provide protection but are cobalt-dependent, costly, and energy-intensive, creating demand for eco-friendly alternatives.
This research will develop and benchmark a cobalt-free flash-carbide coating deposited via HVAF thermal spraying. The research challenge is to determine whether this coating can match or outperform HVOF alternatives under service-representative wear conditions. Key questions include:
- how do abrasive and erosive wear mechanisms differ between Cobalt-free, flash-carbide and conventional HVOF coatings?
- what microstructural or interfacial characteristics govern coating degradation and failure?
- how can analytical and computational wear models predict coating performance and guide optimized design?
The project will combine laboratory-based abrasion and erosion testing, microstructural characterization techniques such as Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and nanoindentation. These methods will be used alongside wear modelling to benchmark performance and identify failure mechanisms.
You'll join a dynamic team bridging materials and aerospace engineering, with access to state-of-the-art facilities, including wear and mechanical testing laboratories. The project offers the unique opportunity to collaborate with thermal spraying laboratories in Sweden and gain exposure to cutting-edge research environments and industry practices. It will equip you with expertise in:
- sustainable materials
- tribology testing
- computational modeling
preparing you to deliver industry-relevant solutions aligned with the CDT’s mission to develop future leaders in defence and security technologies.
