MERail - Mechanical Engineering Railway Research

EU Research project SecureStation runs 2011-2014

MERail at Sheffield is a partner in the major EU research project SecureStation. This project aims to improve rail passenger station and terminal design for safety, security and resilience to terrorist attack. It runs for 3 years, from 2011 until 2014.

EU Research project SustRail runs 2011-2015

MERail at Sheffield is a partner in the major EU research project SustRail: The sustainable freight railway. This project aims to design the freight vehicle – track system for higher delivered tonnage with improved availability at reduced cost. It runs for 4 years, from 2011 until 2015.

Understanding of train-track interaction and rail metallurgical response

EPSRC Industrial CASE PhD studentship
with University of Sheffield and London Underground.

Start in September 2011

Summary: This 3.5 year PhD project offers academic research at the University of Sheffield alongside professional engineering work with London Underground. The project aims to find ways of preventing rail defects that are affecting railways worldwide, but which are not yet fully understood.

For UK applicants this studentship covers UK fees and provides a tax free stipend of approximately £15k per year. EU students are eligible to receive fees only. The studentship is not available to non UK/EU students.

Subjects of relevance: materials/metallurgy, mechanical engineering

Contact: To apply please visit the university website. For informal discussion or further information contact Dr David Fletcher, University of Sheffield, D.I.Fletcher@shef.ac.uk

3rd year students are undertaking a wheel wear study with Siemens

To get the study started the group visited the Siemens depot in Northampton with Dr David Fletcher to learn about management of the train fleet, and engineering issues affecting wheel wear.