PhD Studentship in MATLAB/C++ Simulations of Thermal Fatigue in Aerospace/Nuclear materials

About the Project

We offer a fully funded studentship in Computational Solid Mechanics, leading to the PhD degree at Imperial College London. 3.5-year bursary and fees at the home student rate will be provided. The project has a flexible start date. The succesful candidate will have access to substantial training and sustained support on MATLAB/C++ programming through a 3-year post-doctoral researcher dedicated to the project and Imperial's Resesearch Software Engineering team.

Motivation: New aerospace and nuclear technologies, i.e., hydrogen jet engines, nuclear fusion/fission reactors, expose materials to extreme thermomechanical loads beyond safety limits. Metal alloys raise great potential for surviving extreme loads but current failure assessment is unreliable due to poor understanding of microstructural deformation-damage mechanisms.

Objectives: You will develop a cutting-edge, hybrid MATLAB/C++ code to simulate microstructural deformation-damage processes in Nickel alloys subjected to cyclic thermomechanical loading. The code will implement an advanced Discrete Dislocation Plasticity (DDP) approach to capture the interplay of misfit stresses from second-phase particles, stresses from dislocation-particle interactions and external stresses associated with the thermal and mechanical loads encountered in real aerospace/nuclear environment. You will address computational bottlenecks that hinder the use of DDP modelling by the wider research community and industrial material development practises, by improving code efficiency, usability, versatility.

At first, you will familiarise with solid mechanics theory (elasticity/plasticity), metallurgy, dislocation theory. Thereafter, you will grow proficient programming skills (MATLAB/C++) by attending specialist training by Imperial's Software Engineering team and a post-doctoral Research Associate recruited for 3-years for the project. You will be also asked to contribute to complementary projects on DDP/CPFE modelling within the Mechanics of Materials division in our Department and produce high-quality publications in a strongly collaborative envrironment.

The project can play instrumental role in assisting material scientists, engineers and manufacturers rationalise experimental results, explore the alloy parameter space to improve material performance and develop accurate Finite Element models for design and failure assessment.

You will be an enthusiastic and self-motivated person who meets the academic requirements for enrolment for the PhD degree at Imperial College London. You will have a 1st class honours degree in Mechanical Engineering/Materials/Physics/Mathematics/Computing. Applicants with strong programming skills are especially encouraged to apply.

To find out more about research at Imperial College London in this area, go to:

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/mechanical-engineering/research/

For information on how to apply, go to:

http://www.imperial.ac.uk/mechanical-engineering/study/phd/how-to-apply/

For further details of the post contact Dr Christos Skamniotis christos.skamniotis@imperial.ac.uk. Interested applicants should send an up-to-date curriculum vitae to Dr Skamniotis. Suitable candidates will be required to complete an electronic application form at Imperial College London in order for their qualifications to be addressed by College Registry.

Closing date: until post filled

Funding Notes

The post is supported by a bursary and fees (at the home student rate) provided by Imperial.