“I took part in the Hydrogen Material Challenges course, supported by the Henry Royce Institute, at Cranfield University from the 17th to the 20th of March 2025. This short course provided a comprehensive overview of how hydrogen interacts with the economy, industry and —most importantly, in my opinion— engineering materials. As a PhD student investigating how hydrogen influences crack path damage in titanium alloys, I found the latter particularly valuable. It deepened my understanding of key aspects of my project, including sample preparation, experimentation, chemical mechanisms, physical simulations, and relevant literature.
Hydrogen Material Challenges course participants
During the course, I was also introduced to the Royce Access Scheme, which allows researchers to access equipment at partner universities to support their experiments. I plan to use the gaseous hydrogen charging fatigue rig available through this scheme at Cranfield University to charge titanium fatigue samples in a H2 gas environment, enabling a comparison with the effects of electrochemical hydrogen charging on fatigue life.
Overall, I found the course extremely beneficial to my research. Attending at this early stage of my PhD gave me the opportunity to speak with experts in the field, gain insight into the challenges I might face in future, and learn how best to address them.”
