Steven Turner
Current Interests
As a member of the Functional Materials group, Steven Turner's research focuses on magnetism and magnetic materials. This includes the characterization of soft magnetic materials under both DC and ac (up to 100 kHz) excitation to determine properties such as flux density, field strength, polarization, specific total loss, specific apparent power and peak polarization near saturation. Although the majority of materials are evaluated under standard conditions, applying sinusoidal waveforms at power frequencies, there is scope to increase our capability and include higher frequencies, non-sinusoidal excitation currents (including harmonic distortion), magnetostriction under an applied stress and for investigating the effect of temperature.
In addition to materials research, Steven is also involved in the development of NPL's low-field facility for the calibration of magnetic sensors such as Hall-effect devices (Gaussmeters), fluxgate magnetometers and gradiometers. This includes the use of both passive and active methods of magnetic shielding to create either zero-field or stable environments in which a sensor's performance can be evaluated under the application of constant and time-varying fields or field gradients. Furthermore, this facility is undergoing development to improve the stability of our triaxial Helmholtz coil system by incorporating real-time feedback using an atomic resonance magnetometer.
Biography
Steven earned his Bachelor's degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Swansea University, where he later returned to complete a Master's degree in Power and Aerospace Engineering and carry out research into soft magnetic materials, specifically grain-oriented electrical steel. This was to be the subject of his research at Cardiff University, where he studied for a Doctorate in Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
On leaving Cardiff, Steven took a position at Cogent Power (Orb Electrical Steels) in Newport, where he provided technical support to the heat treatment division. However, in September 2010, Steven moved out of manufacturing and now works as a Higher Research Scientist at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington.
Selected Publications
- The effect of precipitate size on magnetic domain behaviour in grain-oriented electrical steels
S. Turner, A. J. Moses, J. Hall and K. Jenkins
J. Appl. Phys., 107, 09A307 (2010)
Links
Contact details
E-mail: steven.turner@npl.co.uk
Tel: 020 8943 6923