Dr Harry Coules

Summary

My research focusses on the integrity of engineering structures and materials, often dealing with high-dependability metallic components in the energy sector. It includes the mechanics of failure processes (eg. fracture and high-temperature creep), analysis of factors which affect structural integrity (eg. residual stresses) and the development of approximate methods for practical integrity analysis. I am also interested in the manufacture of components for high-dependability applications and often work on welding processes and on the mechanics of additive-manufactured materials. My research typically uses a mix of experimental and modelling/analytical approaches. On the experimental side I have particular interests in residual stress measurement, engineering applications of neutron diffraction and fracture mechanics testing. On the modelling side I am interested in analysis of defects in structures, constitutive models of materials for failure prediction and stress field reconstruction. Companies I currently work with include EDF Energy, Frazer-Nash Consultancy and TWI.

I frequently have funded opportunities for PhD study available and I welcome enquiries from prospective students. Examples of PhD projects I currently supervise are: properties of additive-manufactured nickel superalloys, effects of residual stress on non-brittle fracture and probabilistic failure assessment.

Biography

I joined the Solid Mechanics group at Bristol in 2013 after an MEng in Engineering Science at the University of Oxford and a PhD in Welding Engineering at Cranfield University. After working on measurement and modelling of residual stresses, in 2015 I was awarded an EPSRC fellowship on structural analysis for nuclear power applications. I became a lecturer in 2016 and now I do a wide variety of research and teaching in the structural integrity field. I am also a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).

Teaching

I currently teach two undergraduate units in Mechanical Engineering. MENG33111 Finite Element Analysis (FHEQ level 6) is designed to give students an insight into the underlying principles of this key technique and practical familiarity with applying it to mechanical engineering problems. It is open to 3^rd-year undergraduates in Mechanical Engineering, Mechanical & Electrical Engineering and Engineering Design, as well as master’s students in Nuclear Science and Engineering. MENGM0030 Structural Integrity 1 (FHEQ level 7) focusses on the integrity assessment of engineering components and systems, including damage-tolerance in the elastic and elastic-plastic regimes. It is a 4^th-year option unit for master’s students in Mechanical Engineering and Nuclear Science and Engineering.

Keywords

• Structural integrity
• Residual stress
• Fracture mechanics
• Welding
• Additive manufacturing
• Stress analysis
• Neutron diffraction

Memberships

Organisations

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Other sites

• Engineering

Links

• Linkedin profile
•   Google Scholar profile
• ORCID profile
• ResearchGate profile

Recent publications

• Seow, CE, Coules, HE, Wu, G, Khan, RH, Xu, X & Williams, S, 2019, ‘Wire + Arc Additively Manufactured Inconel 718: Effect of post-deposition heat treatments on microstructure and tensile properties’. Materials and Design, vol 183.
• Coules, H, Horne, G, Peel, M & Connolley, T, 2019, ‘Localised prior strain-hardening increases the tearing resistance of ductile steel’. International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, vol 150., pp. 103-111
• Coules, HE & Probert, MA, 2019, ‘Studying the interaction of crack-like flaws using the MATLAB toolbox int_defects’. Engineering Fracture Mechanics.
• Coules, HE & Horne, G, 2019, ‘Effects of residual stress and localised strain-hardening on the fracture of ductile materials’. in: Procedia Structural Integrity., pp. 934-941
• Coules, H, Orrock, P & Seow, C, 2019, ‘Reflectance Transformation Imaging as a tool for engineering failure analysis’. Engineering Failure Analysis, vol 105., pp. 1006-1017
• Coules, HE, 2019, ‘Extending the life of nuclear plants’. Materials World, vol 27., pp. 42-44
• Li, Y, Shterenlikht, A, Pavier, M & Coules, H, 2019, ‘Fatigue of thin periodic triangular lattice plates’. in: Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Multiaxial Fatigue and Fracture (ICMFF12).
• Bezensek, B, Coules, H, Sharples, J & Tkach, Y, 2019, ‘Proposed updates to the buried-to-surface flaw characterization rules in the Annex E of BS 7910’. in: Proceedings of the ASME 2019 38th International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering.
• Seow, CE, Coules, H, Wu, G, Khan, R & Xu, X, 2019, ‘Effect of post-deposition heat treatments on the microstructure and hardness of Wire + Arc Additively Manufactured Inconel 718’. in: Proceedings of the First European Conference on Structural Integrity of Additively Manufactured Materials (ESIAM).
• Probert, M, Coules, H, Truman, C & Hofmann, M, 2019, ‘The effect of crack growth history on fracture toughness’. in: Proceedings of the ASME 2019 Pressure Vessels & Piping Conference.

View complete publications list in the University of Bristol publications system

Courses

Dr Coules currently teaches 2 courses: