Background
Dr Stella Pedrazzini studied for an MEng in Materials Science at Trinity College, Oxford between 2006 -2010. Her research project focussed on nano-quasicrystalline Al-matrix composites for high temperature applications, a topic which she continued to work on during her DPhil, also at Oxford, between 2010-2014. For the following 3 years she remained at Oxford as a post-doc in the atom probe tomography (APT) group, splitting her time between 2 projects: (1) an atom probe study of radiation damage in perovskite superconductors for fusion applications and (2) environmental degradation in nickel superalloys exposed to corrosive and oxidising compounds.
She moved to Cambridge in 2017 for a post-doc in the Rolls-Royce UTC, where she continued to work on oxidation and hot corrosion of nickel superalloys and tutored 1st year Engineering students for Churchill College. She is a member of the Institute for Materials, Minerals and Mining (IoM3) (MIMMM) and their High Temperature Materials Committee, and the Materials Research Society (MRS) High Temperature Materials Committee.
She co-supervised a variety of industrially sponsored student projects in collaboration with Rolls-Royce plc, Shell, EdF Energy and other companies, as well as working on her own collaborative projects with the Royal Academy of Engineering and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. She is currently involved in the set up of a new national facility for cryogenic microscopy at Imperial college, funded by EPSRC.
In 2019 she received a 5-year EPSRC Early Career fellowship and an RAEng Associate Research Fellowship to investigate corrosion of nickel superalloys, which she is currently funded by.
Studentships
We are a happy, diverse and friendly group, come join us!
PhD studentships and summer internships are advertised every year around December/January, MScs/MEng get advertised during the summer.
Research Interests
Over the last few years my research has focused on metals electrochemistry. I use advanced characterisation techniques such as atom probe tomography and transmission electron microscopy to study the effects of corrosion in metallic systems and explain the mechanisms. My work is very applied and performed in collaboration with industrial partners.
Formula 1 Cars: One of my publications studied the effect of fuel contaminants on the microstructure and surface degradation of an Inconel 625 Formula 1 car exhaust after 33 hours of racing. We were able to assess microstructural changes caused by thermal cycling and detect contaminants which came from the fuel on the alloy surface in the first freely-available study of corrosion of ex-service Formula 1 exhaust manifolds. This project was performed in collaboration with Good Fabrications Performance Exhausts, who produce exhaust pipes for Formula 1 cars and racing motorbikes.
Aero-Engines: Some of my current projects are performed in collaboration with Rolls-Royce plc studying new materals for aero-engine applications. This includes analysing the corrosion resistance of alloys such as polycrystalline disc alloy RR1000, like in this publication. Others are more focussed on atomic scale characterisation of the oxides, to explain the oxidation mechanisms, like this paper which is currently under review but available on the pre-print server ArXiV. Other projects are on alloy development, such as the studying the effect of new and unusual alloying additions like Mn on the oxidation behaviour of nickel superalloys. I have recently been working more on design of aero-engine turbine blade alloys for corrosion and oxidation resistance, which is the topic of the PhD studentships I am about to advertise.
Industrial Gas Turbines: Most of my work performed in collaboration with Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery on alloys for industrial gas turbines has focussed on advanced characterisation of novel alloys and testing new additives both for thermal-mechanical fatigue strength, creep resistance and oxidation resistance, with the potential to expand into alloy corrosion in the future.
Outreach
COME FIND US AT THE GREAT EXHIBITION ROAD FESTIVAL!!!!!!
Sign up for our free workshop here.
Stella and most of her students and post-docs are STEM ambassadors, enquire about activities available by emailing Stella. We regularly run workshops, tours and talks for schools.
Stella also represents Imperial College on the naitonal outreach network Discover Materials.
