About

I am a lecturer in Mechanical Engineering. I completed my PhD in 2019 in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Derby.

Since 2018, I have been working as an academic researcher at the College of Science and Engineering and Institute of Innovation and Sustainable Engineering, University of Derby, supporting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through De-Carbonise and Innovate For Rail programmes.

Research interests

My research interests include:

• manufacturing and testing lightweight materials,
• structural health monitoring of materials,
• adhesive bonding of dissimilar materials,
• effects of surface treatments of adherend and wettability of adhesive
• multiscale simulations

I work as a part of Research Composite Team. Here you can find more about our facilities Advanced Research Composite Centre.

Some of my research projects were funded by external bodies, for example, SUPERGEN ORE Hub.

This research project aimed to develop a graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) self-sensing structural health monitoring (SHM) system for adhesively bonded joints of fibre-reinforced plastics (FRP). Upon addition of GNPs, the epoxy adhesive becomes electrically conductive. Damage of the GNPs reinforced adhesive layer can be detected by measuring the change of electric signal using Arduino microcontroller. A low-power Bluetooth wireless communication system will transmit the structural health signal to a computer. This system can monitor blades at the joints, which can dramatically reduce operational costs, increase reliability and sustainability of turbines.

• Structural health monitoring for wind turbine blades via graphene self-sensing adhesive layer joining fibre-reinforced plastics

Recent publications

• Paul Wood, Fathi Boud, Wayne Carter, Hirbod Varasteh, Urvashi Gunputh, Marzena Pawlik, Jenny Clementson, Yiling Lu, Syed Hossain, Matthew Broderick, Munusamy Raguraman, Andy Smith, Andy Mantle, Jamie McGourlay "On the lubricity and comparative life cycle of biobased synthetic and mineral oil emulsions in machining Titanium Ti-6Al-4V at low cutting speed ", The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology (2022)
• M Pawlik, LYY Cheah, U Gunputh, H Le, P Wood, Y Lu, "Surface engineering of carbon fibre/epoxy composites with woven steel mesh for adhesion strength enhancement" International Journal of Adhesion and Adhesives (2022)
• M Pawlik, Y Lu, H Le, "Effects of surface modification and graphene nanoplatelet reinforcement on adhesive joint of aluminium alloys", International Journal of Adhesion and Adhesives (2020)
• M Pawlik, H Le, Y Lu, "Effects of the graphene nanoplatelets reinforced interphase on mechanical properties of carbon fibre reinforced polymer - A multiscale modelling study", Composites Part B: Engineering (2019)

Professional interests

I actively review articles for a number of journals (Publon profile). 

Qualifications

• BEng Hons in Mechanical Engineering (First Class), University of Derby 2015
• PhD in Mechanical Engineering (Effects of graphene on the mechanical properties of fibre reinforced polymer: a numerical and experimental approach), University of Debry 2019

Recent conferences

• International Conference of Composite Structures ICCS20, Paris 2017, Pawlik M, Dean A, Lu Y. The numerical investigation of graphene-reinforced interphase effects on the mechanical properties of carbon fibre epoxy composites, p.194-5
• European Conference on Materials, Mechatronics and Manufacturing (ECMMM 2018), Krakow 2018, Pawlik M, Lu Y. Prediction of elastic constant of the fuzzy fibre reinforced polymer using computational micromechanics. IOP Conf. Ser. Mater. Sci. Eng. 362 (2018)
• International Workshop on Materials and Design (MatDes,2019), Oxford, March 2019
• International Conference of Composite Materials (ICCM22) Melbourne 2019, Pawlik M, Le H, Lu Y. How the spraying of graphene nanoplatelets changes mechanical properties of carbon fibre reinforced polymer p.2843-2851

Experience in industry

Since 2018, I have been working as an academic researcher at the College of Science and Engineering and Institute of Innovation and Sustainable Engineering, University of Derby, supporting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through De-Carbonise and Innovate For Rail programmes.

One example of a project is the experimental testing of joining solutions for Fibre Reinforced Polymer for railway pedestrian bridges FRP bridges Engineering CSL.

In the media

• From Undergraduate to Academic: Marzena's Derby journey
• Impact tester demonstration

Teaching responsibilities

I teach and support the following modules:

• Mechanical Engineering Principles
• Engineering Mathematics
• Advanced Material Properties and Processing
• Advanced Engineering Design Modelling
• Advanced Mechanical Design and Materials
• Advanced Material Science