Research Portfolio

Access to my ResearchGate, ORCID ID and LinkedIn Profiles

I'm Dr Pieter le Roux, Engineering Research, Ethics and Quality Assurance Committee Chair. 

My research areas include but are not limited to:

• Design of lower-limb prosthetics components

• Intelligent Machining of Titanium alloys

• Finite Element Analysis Simulations

• Fatigue Testing and Surface Integrity Analysis

• Machine design

Engineering Research, Ethics and Quality Assurance Committee

 The Committee is responsible for coordinating all research initiatives within the Engineering Programmes, lecturer development, and professional registration. This includes industry partnerships formalised through MoUs and advising the Engineering Auxiliary Services Committee on the procurement of research equipment and consumables. The Committee is also responsible for issuing a quarterly Engineering Newsletter, highlighting initiatives and achievements within the Engineering Programmes.

 Current Research

•  I have obtained my PhD thesis titled Fatigue life enhancement of Ti-6Al-4V ELI parts by optimising the machining strategy for a compressive residual stress field in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Johannesburg. 

• I have submitted my Professional Engineering application to the Engineering Council of South Africa and is expected to have an outcome by December 2024.

• I am writing two articles on sections of my PhD in collaboration with Professor R.F. Laubscher. These articles are planned for publication in 2024.

• I am currently investigating Engineering student performance at IIE MSA with the Engineering Marks Database to determine the effects of COVID-19 on Chemistry performance.

• I am currently reviewing data on an article comparing private and public Engineering qualifications within South Africa.

• I am currently increasing capstone participation in fatigue and manufacturing research, including one article that will be published in Q1 of 2025.

Snippets of Current Research

Future Research and Collaborations

Future research and collaborations within the Engineering research space include:

• Finalising a formal MoU with the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Johannesburg - This MoU will ensure that all three Engineering qualifications can collaborate and share resources to produce high-quality research.

• Continuation of my Titanium alloy research to further enhance the fatigue performance of Titanium alloys used in Aerospace and Biomedical fields.

• Forming partnerships with industry partners to get students and staff involved with Engineering Student Challenges and promote the first private Tertiary Institute in South Africa to offer a ECSA endorsed Engineering Programme

Existing Research

My existing research includes:

• SAIMechE Mechanical Post Graduate Student Conference 2017: 

The conference was held with postgraduate engineering students from multiple universities in South Africa, academic researchers within various fields of engineering and industry experts. The presentations allowed me a platform to present my research on prosthetic limbs.

• Department of Science and Technology (DST): Advanced Manufacturing Technology Strategy (AMTS) Project: Resource Efficient Process Chain for Titanium Components in Aerospace, Automotive and Medical Applications. 

I presented on the following topics: Transtibial Prosthetics, Surface Integrity of Ti-6Al-4V ELI machined surfaces, In-plane fatigue machine design, and an intelligent Rotating-bending machine design. 

• R & D Journal of the South African Institution of Mechanical Engineering:

Published an article with co-author Professor R.F. Laubscher (University of Johannesburg, South Africa) in the R & D Journal of the South African Institution of Mechanical Engineering’s 35th volume, A Parametric Design and Optimization Approach to Enhance the Fatigue Life of a Male Pyramid Socket Adapter.

• International Conference on Competitive Manufacturing (COMA’19):

I presented a paper with co-author Professor R.F. Laubscher (University of Johannesburg, South Africa) at COMA’19 at Stellenbosch in January 2019 with the title: Optimising the machining strategy to control the residual stress state of a typical Ti-6AL-4V ELI component.

• CIRP Conference on Surface Integrity (CIRP CSI 2020):

A conference paper at the prestigious CIRP Conference on Surface Integrity under the title: Machining for an increased fatigue life for a Ti-6Al-4V ELI component.

• University of Johannesburg – School of Mechanical, Industrial, Quality and Operations Symposium (1 April 2022). 

Presentation titled: Fatigue performance of machined Ti-6Al-4V ELI when subject to different machining strategies.