Dr William Christian

Senior Lecturer
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Part of
School of Engineering
Faculty of Science and Engineering

Contact

W.J.R.Christian@liverpool.ac.uk

Research

If you are interested in my research then I currently have a fully funded (i.e. tuition and maintenance costs) PhD studentship:
Nuclear engineering related, Linking historic, contemporary, and future inspection data for improved asset monitoring

The surface strain field on a composite coupon containing fibre-waviness under a four-point bend load. The strains were measured using stereoscopic digital image correlation.

Defect Mechanics in Composite Materials

I use digital image correlation and thermoelastic stress analysis to experimentally determine how defects cause structures to deform and fail. Much of my work has been focused on carbon-fibre reinforced polymers, looking at impact damage and fibre-waviness. Recently I have worked on more exotic ceramic matrix composite materials.

Pulse-echo ultrasound C-scan used to view fibre tows in a composite coupon.

Non-destructive Evaluation of Structural Materials

I use ultrasound and a novel strain-based defect assessment that I have developed to predict material properties for defective structures. I use simple statistical algorithms to make these predictions.

A displacement field on the surface of an indented block measured using digital image correlation (top) and a reconstruction of the same displacement field using fifty image moments (bottom).

Computer Vision for Engineering Data

I use orthogonal decomposition of image data to perform pattern recognition. I also use texture analysis techniques for characterising defects.

Research grants

MUSICA: Modelling UltraSonic Inspection of Challenging defects for Automated analysis

RESEARCH CENTRE FOR NON-DESTRUCTIVE EVALUATION (UK)

March 2023 - June 2025

Smarter Testing

INNOVATE UK (UK)

January 2021 - December 2024

SteADfASt – Strain-based Assessment of Defects for Aerospace Structures

ENGINEERING & PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL

January 2022 - December 2022