Benjamin Cunningham Email & Phone Number

Southampton University

https://nc2consulting.co.uk/about-us/

Southampton, United Kingdom

• Thesis topic - Crack growth behaviour in martensitic stainless steels in notches with overloads and development of lifetime prediction methods to investigate the efficacy of a lifetime extension strategy – Funded by EDF Energy.• Development of following skills: research, material preparation, fatigue testing, data analysis, computer simulation (ABAQUS), technical writing, project management and presentation.• Training and experience with the following: material heat treating and cutting, mounting (in Bakelite), grinding and polishing (steel and aluminium), etching (with Vilella’s reagent), microscopy (optical, SEM BEI and EDX), surface characterisation using tactile and optometry (Alicona) methods, tensile testing and fatigue testing in three/four-point bend configuration. • Designed and created drawings for a rig that has become the standard equipment for fatigue testing in three/four-point bend in the Testing Structures Research Laboratory.• Basic training completed in CT scanning and EBSD.• Supervised students completing their Masters degrees and mentored new PhD students.• One published journal article with FFEMS (Fatigue & Fracture of Engineering Material and Structures).

Ferndown Industrial Estate

• Small design consultancy firm across various sector including: Aerospace (Rolls-Royce tooling and BAE), Marine (Sunseeker), Offshore (Subsea structures), Entertainment (advanced stage prop design), Nuclear energy (AWE), factory machine equipment and more.• Primary responsibilities - Stress analysis (ANSYS) of concept designs and collaboration with colleagues to ensure designs conform to strength specifications and report writing.• As the company stress analysis expert, I also provided specialised training to new starters and experienced designers.• Secondary responsibilities – Concept design from client specification using various CAD packages (Solidworks, Inventor and NX), reverse engineering design, creating part and assembly drawings to various standards including BS8888, visit clients to resolve issues.

Doctor Of Philosophy - Phd, Materials Engineering

Understand the effects of overloads on crack initiation and growth in a notch stress field. Develop a FEA model to capture plastic strain.

Certification Of Achievement, Clinical Canine Massage Therapy - Practitioner Programme, Pass

Activities and Societies: Full member of the Canine Massage GuildModules include: Canine Physiology, Massage theory and the law, Palpation.

Masters Of Engineering With Honours, Mechanical Engineering, 1St Class

Part Time 85% overall mark in Design Simulation module 75% in Project Engineering module 72% in Dissertation Project 70% in Fracture.

Beng (Hons), Mechanical Engineering

Activities and Societies: Table Tennis Club (Chairman for 2 consecutive years)