Interested in supervising students studying:

• Composites
• Additively manufactured materials
• Mechanical engineering
• Materials characterisation
• Microscopy & microscale techniques
• Synchrotron & neutron based methods
• Lab X-ray and laser based analysis

Profile

Dr Alexander J G Lunt is a lecturer in the Materials and Structures Centre within the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bath.

Alexander completed his MEng, PhD and first lectureship in engineering science at Christ Church, University of Oxford. Upon the completion of his PhD he took up a senior fellowship at CERN, where established their first dedicated micromechanical testing laboratory

Dr Lunt started his lectureship at Bath in 2019, and has established a diverse research network in the fields of composites, additive manufacture, advanced materials and biomechanics. He is currently affiliate lead for the University’s CMS affiliation, and has strong collaborative connections with a broad range of academic and industrial partners.

He has won numerous awards and scholarships:

• WCE best paper award
• EPSRC scholarship
• Barnes award
• Hooke Prize
• Roach Prize
• Dixon scholarship
• GKN award

Research

Alexander’s main research interests are on the development of microscale mechanical experimental techniques using microscopy and non-destructive techniques. This research topic offers the potential to improve substantially our understanding of material mechanics at the micro-to-nanoscale and has arisen from the significant advances in these technologies in recent decades. He has published widely in the field, including work in Scientific Reports and Carbon, on topics ranging from microscale strain quantification in amorphous materials to the development of thin films for radio frequency applications.

He has significant experience in the micromechanical characterisation of a broad range of materials and systems including ceramics, biomaterials, polymers, metals and composites. In particular he has developed methods to characterise microscale variations in residual stress, fracture toughness and yield strength. He performed a significant amount of FEA and analytical modelling in order to understand better these systems and published articles as well as open source codes in these areas.

Alexander also has a wealth of experience in electron microscopy and Focused Ion Beam (FIB) based techniques. He has been responsible for establishing and running 2 different electron microscopy facilities, with a total installation cost of approximately £1.5 million. As a result, he has developed and published work on multiple new microscale mechanical tests exploiting these systems.

The other avenue of Alexander’s research is based on synchrotron and neutron diffraction. He has been awarded over £750k worth of experimental funding for his studies at the some of the world’s leading facilities (including DLS, ISIS, ESRF and SLS) and has published widely in the field. 

Academic collaboration is fundamental to the work that Alexander performs and he is always looking to establish new research partnerships. He has also collaborated with numerous European Union projects including the €6 million project ‘iStress’ which was directed towards standardisation of residual stress quantification techniques based on FIB milling.

Alexander’s experiences in the characterisation of machining and interfaces has been particularly helpful in process optimisation and refinement for industry. As a result he has participated in joint projects with Rolls-Royce, Airbus, Rolex, CERN, ITER, GKN, Carpenter Technology and many other world leading industrial partners. These studies have resulted in significant technical progress, and the improvement of part characteristics. If similar characterisation would be of interest to you, Alexander is keen to develop new industrial links going forwards.

Alexander is currently the express editor for the Elsevier Journal of Materials and Design.

Alexander’s teaching interests are broad and include:

• Solid mechanics
• Engineering mathematics
• Materials testing and characterisation
• Manufacturing techniques
• Engineering in society
• Information engineering