Richard Smith, Director of the Tank Museum and Bournemouth University's Professor Mark Hadfield.
The famous armoured cars and tanks of the newly revamped Tank Museum in Bovington, Dorset are to benefit from a three-year PhD research project into conserving historic vehicles.
Working in partnership with Bournemouth University under the guidance of senior academic Dr Zulfiqar Khan of the Sustainable Design Research Centre, a team will aim to understand and improve tank preservation techniques and strategies.
The Museum holds the most important collection of its kind in the world with almost 300 historic armoured vehicles under its care including the world’s first ever tank and a number of others maintained in running order for public displays.
"This is a tremendously exciting project that will apply academic expertise to a unique set of vehicles and ensure that they can be preserved for generations to come," said Richard Smith, Director of The Tank Museum.
Dr Khan and his team will be looking at a number of things including the requirements of running and operating large and heavy vehicles after periods of non-use, and the 'tribological' aspects of moving lubricated components.
"Concentrated residual stress, corrosion, stress corrosion cracking and fatigue stress within the structure need to be considered in balance with economical and sustainable aspects," explained Dr Khan. "In addition, an ethics dimension needs to be addressed in terms of the assessment of replacement artefact replicas and originals for these museum vehicles."
The three-year research project will get underway later this year.
