Dr William Christian

Personal Statement

If you are interested in my research then I currently have two fully funded (i.e. tuition and maintenance costs) PhD studentships:
Nuclear engineering related, Linking historic, contemporary, and future inspection data for improved asset monitoring
Wind generation related, Improved structural integrity assessments for wrinkling defects in composite turbines

I am a mechanical engineer, primarily working with aerospace structural materials. I obtained my MEng in 2014 from the University of Liverpool and then embarked on a PhD also at Liverpool, graduating in 2017. In 2018 I became a lecturer in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. I am the programme director for the Mechanical Engineering undergraduate courses, with ultimate responsibility of their running.

My research is focused on the characterisation of defects in structural materials using optical stress and strain measurement techniques such as digital image correlation and thermoelastic stress analysis. I also have a background in ultrasonic non-destructive evaluation of defects in composites as well as other materials. All of these experimental techniques produce large amounts of image data, therefore I have developed computer vision algorithms to process this data. I believe that for defect assessments to be of most use to industry the information obtained should be in the form of residual strength predictions or remnant life. To achieve this I combine the defect assessments I develop with Bayesian statistics to predict the future behaviour of structures with quantified uncertainties.