Dr Oliver Brooks MPhys(Hons), PhD

Dr Oliver Brooks

School of Metallurgy and Materials
Research Fellow

Contact details

Address
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Oliver Brooks is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Magnetic Materials Group at the University of Birmingham.

Biography

Oliver Brooks graduated with an MPhys degree (1st Class) in Physics from the Loughborough University in 2012. He later went on to study a PhD on the development the Hydrogen Ductilisation Process (HyDP) for rare earth magnets under the supervision of Professor Allan Walton and Professor Rex Harris at the University of Birmingham. This process allowed for room temperature deformation of the normally brittle Nd-Fe-B material, whilst avoiding any powder processing and improving the magnetic behaviour. During this time, Oliver and his supervisors patented HyDP and he has published several papers in this area.

Oliver currently works as a post-doctoral research fellow in the Magnetic Materials Group, primarily investigating the optimisation of HyDP and its potential for commercialisation. He also investigates the high temperature Hydrogenation-Disproportionation-Desorption-Recombination (HDDR) reaction which transforms the microstructure and magnetic properties of Nd-Fe-B materials.

Research

  • Optimisation of microstructure and anisotropy of Nd-Fe-B materials using HyDP
  • Mechanical properties of Nd-Fe-B materials
  • Magnetic characterisation of rare earth magnets
  • Optimisation of solid/dynamic HDDR processing

Publications

Journal Articles:

  • Brooks, O., Zhou, W., Walton, A. and Harris, I.R. The Hydrogen Ductilisation Process (HyDP) for shaping NdFeB magnets, Journal of Alloys and Compounds, Volume 703 (2017) p538-547. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2016.12.177
  • Brooks, O.P., Zhou, W., Brown, D., Walton, A. and I.R. Harris. Complete ductility in NdFeB-type alloys using the Hydrogen Ductilisation Process (HyDP), Acta Materialia, Volume 155 (2018) p268-278. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2018.04.055

Patents:

  • Brooks, O.P., Walton, A. and Harris, I.R. University of Birmingham (2018). Magnet Production. U.S. Patent Application No. 15/740,593

Conference Papers:

  • Walton, A., Brooks, O., Pirolini, A., Bradshaw, A., Sheridan, R.S., Mann, V.S.J., and Harris, I.R. A possible new route for producing fine grained NdFeB-type magnets. Proceedings of the 23rd International Workshop on Rare Earth Magnets and their Applications (2014)
  • Brooks, O., Zhou, W., Jönsson, C., Bradshaw, A., Walton, A. and Harris, I.R. The Employment of the Hydrogen Ductilisation Process in the Production of NdFeB-Based Magnets. Proceedings of IEEE International Magnetics Conference, Dublin (2017)
  • Brooks, O., Zhou, W., Walton, A. and Harris, I.R. The development of the Hydrogen Ductilisation Process (HyDP) for NdFeB-type alloys. Proceedings of IOP Magnetism, Manchester (2018)
  • Brooks, O., Zhou, W., Stoneham, J., Walton, A. and Harris, I.R. Improved Ductility of Hydrogen Ductilisation Processed (HyDP) NdFeB material: REPM2018. Proceedings of the 25th International Workshop on Rare-Earth and Future Permanent Magnets and Their Applications, Beijing (2018)

View all publications in research portal