Loughborough University is a top-ten rated university in England for research intensity (REF2014) and an outstanding 66% of the work of Loughborough’s academic staff who were eligible to be submitted to the REF was judged as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’, compared to a national average figure of 43%. In choosing Loughborough for your research, you’ll work alongside academics who are leaders in their field. You will benefit from comprehensive support and guidance from our Doctoral College, including tailored careers advice, to help you succeed in your research and future career. Silicon carbide is of great importance as a structural ceramic as it is amongst the hardest materials known. Machining silicon carbide parts into the required shape and form for a given application is extremely difficult, yielding unwanted defects. This issue is further exacerbated when manufacturing small scaled components such as in IC components and MEMS devices. Thorough understanding of the machining process in the micro-scale becomes important in determining machining induced residual stress in the component and its effect on fatigue life. In this project, we plan to conduct extensive small-scaled experimental studies in micro-scratching and micro-milling in single crystal silicon carbide. This will be followed by modelling the machining process using advanced numerical codes in a parallel computing framework – with the ultimate goal of obtaining an accurate and efficient computational framework that can be used to optimise the machining process in these materials.