People

Phillion Lab members:

Understanding Metallurgical Processes

& Developing Industry Leading Solutions

André Phillion is an Associate Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada. His research interests focus on mathematical modelling of materials and processes and 3D imaging and image analysis. The main focus of the research is to experimentally investigate and numerically simulate solidification across multiple length scales in order to develop new relationships linking heat transfer and fluid flow at the macro-scale with microstructure and defects. Dr. Phillion received his PhD from the Department of Materials Engineering at The University of British Columbia in 2007, where he combined high temperature experimental methods with multi-scale modelling to investigate solidification processes and casting defects. He also worked at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (2008-2009), and UBC’s Okanagan campus (2010-2015). In 2014, he was awarded the Brimacombe Award by the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum.

André Phillion

Muhammad Nabeel

Muhammad is a Postdoctoral Fellow with experience in high temperature experimentation. His research work involves investigation of non-metallic inclusions in various steel grades, in situ observation of inclusions in liquid steel and evolution of steel’s microstructure, high temperature tensile testing, and thermodynamic modeling. Muhammad received his PhD in applied process metallurgy from KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. His PhD work was focused on characterization of micro-particles observed at different stages of iron and steel making processes.

Zhen Li

Zhen is a Ph.D. student whose research interests include additive manufacturing, phase equilibrium and numerical modeling. Now, Zhen is working on the phase field modeling of solidification during the additive manufacturing process. Zhen is also working on phase equilibrium prediction for multi-component alloys. Zhen received his Bachelor’s degree and Master’s degree in Beihang University, China. His Master’s research mainly focused on welding of copper alloy and Finite Element Modeling of this process.

Coleton’s PhD research focuses on the brazing of nickel superalloys as a means to repair cracks and defects in turbine blades. He is using differential scanning calorimetry as well as 3D X-ray tomography to characterize and analyze the morphology evolution of the alloy during the brazing process.

Coleton Parks

Araf Al Rafi

Araf is a PhD student whose research focuses on segregation in continuous casting process. His research interests include numerical modelling, solidification and computational fluid dynamics. He received his Master’s degree from Keio University, Japan in 2020 and his bachelor’s degree from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in 2015, both in Mechanical Engineering.

Kai Kang

Kai is a first year PhD student whose research interests include simulation, modeling and 3D imaging in solidification and microstructure in Additive Manufacturing. Kai received a B.S. in Materials and Engineering at University of Science and Technology Beijing, and a M.S. in Materials Science at Carnegie Mellon University.

Abhishek Arya

Abhishek Arya is a PhD student whose research focuses on observation of semi-solid deformation of advanced high strength steel alloys in situ via confocal microscopy. His research interests include solidification, numerical modeling of ferroalloys dissolution, coupled thermo-fluid and thermo-mechanical modeling of continuous caster. He received his dual degree Bachelor's as well as Master's in Materials Science and Engineering from IIT Kanpur.

Talha Aziz

Talha is an MASc student whose research focuses on the numerical modelling and experimentation of High Pressure Die Casting (HPDC) of aluminum alloys for automotive applications. His research interests include solidification, computational fluid dynamics, and finite element analysis. He received his bachelor’s degree in Materials Engineering from McMaster University in 2021.

Bilal is a level 4 Mechanical Engineering student at McMaster University, and an intern for Solidification of Metallic Alloys Research. He is assisting Neil McClean with his M.A.Sc. research on aluminum alloy and Olajide Akintayo with his Ph.D research on Advanced High Strength Steel (AHSS).

Bilal Afzal

Pardis Mohammadpour

Pardis is a PhD student whose research topic deals with Solidification Fundamentals and Microstructure Evolution in Additive Manufacturing: Experimental and Modelling. Her present research focus is how to develop Microstructure Processing and Selection Maps in additive manufacturing applications.

Angshuman is a PhD student who is working currently on modelling of inclusions in Si-Mn killed steel. He completed his undergraduate studies in Jadavpur University and obtained his Masters from IIT Bombay. His research interests include modelling and analysis, thermodynamics and steel metallurgy.

Angshuman Podder

Kaamil is a PhD candidate whose research focuses on developing a model to simulate nozzle clogging in a submerged entry nozzle used in continuous casting. His main research interests include solidification simulation, computational fluid dynamics and finite element analysis. Kaamil received his Master’s Degree in Materials Science and Engineering from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia in 2015 and his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong in 2012.

Kaamil Ur Rahman Mohamed Shibly

Olajide is a PhD student whose research centers on the in-situ and ex-situ investigation of solidification microstructures in Advanced High Strength Steels (AHSS). He obtained a double master’s degree in Functional Advanced Materials Engineering from the Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP-Phelma), France, and the University of Augsburg, Germany under the Erasmus Mundus label. Before this, he received his bachelor’s degree in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering from the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), Nigeria. His research interests include solidification, processing - transformations - microstructure - property relationships, composites, materials modelling, and additive manufacturing.

Olajide Akintayo

Javier Miranda

Javier is a first-year PhD student focused on the experimental research of the microstructure evolution of β-Ti alloys during Additive Manufacturing. Javier received his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador, in 2018.

Cole is an MASc student whose research deals with the development of a digital twin model of continuous casting of steel plate. The focus is on developing a 2-D thermal-mechanical model, which will be used for stress/strain predictions and alloy segregation. He received his undergraduate degree in Materials Engineering from McMaster University in 2020.

Cole Becker

Neil McClean

Neil is an MASc student whose research in the area of aluminium alloy solidification with focus on the phenomenon of quasicrystal nucleation and its effect on microstructure evolution and corresponding material properties. He received his BASc in mechanical engineering from the University of Waterloo.

Alumni

Prabhakar Pal (Graduate Student)

Felicia Mikrogianakis (Undergraduate Student)

Yi Feng (Postdoctoral Fellow)

Gerald Tembrevilla (Postdoctoral Fellow)

Mahbuber Rahman (Undergraduate Student)

Kaelah McLennan (Undergraduate Student)

Stefan Heugenhauser (Postdoctoral Fellow)

Farheen Ahmed (Graduate Student)

Khaled Abu Samk (Postdoctoral Fellow)

Ruifeng Dou (Visiting Scholar)

Niloufar Khodaei (Graduate Student)