Materials Trainee

Internship Overview

The Material Characterization Unit (MCC Lab) at newcleo’s Environment Park site in Turin supports the development of Lead-cooled Fast Reactors (LFRs) by characterizing the structural materials and protective coatings that will operate in demanding, reactor-relevant environments, including heavy liquid metals.
This internship focuses on the mechanical characterization of bulk materials and coatings at the micro- and nano-scale, using complementary techniques available in the lab: instrumented scratch testing, indentation and nanoindentation and in-situ mechanical testing in SEM (Alemnis). The main purpose is to extract the maximum information from each instrument, correlate the measured mechanical response with other material properties, and translate this know-how into a robust, reproducible characterization protocol.
Main objectives
•    Master the working principles, limitations and data-analysis methods of scratch testing, nanoindentation and in-situ mechanical testing.
•    Identify and quantify the full set of properties that can be obtained from each technique (e.g., hardness, elastic modulus, creep and strain-rate sensitivity, critical loads and adhesion, friction, yield/flow stress, fracture behavior).
•    Correlate mechanical results with microstructure, chemistry, phase content, thickness, roughness and other material properties, on both bulk materials and coatings.
•    Develop and validate a characterization protocol (sample preparation, test parameters, calibration, data processing and reporting) to be adopted as a standard practice in the MCC Lab.

Work Plan    

The internship lasts 6 months and is organized in the following phases. The plan will be refined together with the supervisor according to sample availability and instrument scheduling.
Month 1 – Onboarding and state of the art
•    Laboratory safety and instrument training (scratch tester, nanoindenter, in-situ mechanical testing stage).
•    Literature review on instrumented indentation (Oliver–Pharr, ISO 14577), scratch testing of coatings (e.g., ISO 20502, ASTM C1624) and micro-mechanical testing (micropillar compression, micro-cantilever bending, micro-tensile), including substrate and size effects.
•    Definition of the sample matrix (bulk steels and coated samples) and of the properties to be correlated.
Month 2 – Sample preparation, calibration and baseline
•    Development of surface and specimen preparation routes suitable for each technique.
•    Calibration and verification of the instruments on reference materials; repeatability and reproducibility study on bulk reference samples.
•    Baseline microstructural, chemical and surface characterization of the selected materials (electron microscopy, EDS/EBSD, roughness, thickness).
Months 3–4 – Systematic mechanical testing
•    Nanoindentation: multi-load and continuous stiffness measurement tests, strain-rate tests and property maps on bulk materials and coatings; correction for pile-up/sink-in and assessment of substrate influence.
•    Scratch testing: progressive- and constant-load tests on coatings, determination of critical loads and friction, post-test SEM/optical analysis of failure modes.
•    In-situ mechanical testing (Alemnis): micropillar compression and micro-cantilever/micro-tensile tests inside the SEM, with real-time observation of deformation and failure mechanisms.
Month 5 – Data analysis and correlation
•    Statistical analysis of the datasets and development of analysis scripts (e.g., Python/MATLAB).
•    Correlation between techniques and with other properties (e.g., hardness vs. yield strength, grain size and orientation, coating thickness, adhesion vs. critical loads).
•    Identification of the most informative measurements, parameters and test conditions for each material class.
Month 6 – Protocol, validation and final reporting
•    Drafting of the characterization protocol on the newcleo Test Method template and validation on independent samples.
•    Final technical report and presentation to the MCC Lab team.
Expected deliverables
•    Characterization protocol / Test Method for scratch, nanoindentation and in-situ mechanical testing of bulk materials and coatings.
•    Curated dataset and data-processing scripts.
•    Final technical report and presentation; contribution to internal or scientific publications where applicable.

Qualifications

Education
Master’s student or recent graduate in Materials Science/Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, Nuclear Engineering or a related field.

Experience
•    No prior professional experience is required.
•    Solid background in mechanical behavior of materials and physical metallurgy; knowledge of thin films/coatings is a plus.
•    Hands-on experience with nanoindentation, scratch testing, SEM/EBSD or in-situ mechanical testing is a plus.
•    Data-analysis skills (Python, MATLAB or similar) and good scientific writing skills.
•    Rigorous and autonomous approach, curiosity, and ability to work in a team of researchers.

Language Proficiency:  

•    Strong written and verbal communication skills in English (CEFR C1+)
•    Fluent in Italian (CEFR C1+); French is a plus