"Research Associate in Battery Fire Modelling"

You will be part of an active research programme in the Heat and Fire Lab (https://heatandfire.github.io/) in the Department of Engineering at King’s College London.

We are looking to appoint a full-time (1.0 FTE) Research Associate as part of a Faraday Institution funded project on battery fire modelling, specifically focusing on thermal runaway and cell-to-cell propagation of flaming combustion. The role-holder will be part of a larger team on the SAFEBATT Project, major grant of the Faraday Institution, being led by UCL. At King’s, you will be joining a department with new laboratory facilities.

The post is funded until 29th March 2026.

The research in this project at King’s will help develop a full model that integrates a thermal electrical coupled battery model, a chemical kinetics model and a flame dynamics model to provide a tool that can be used to predict battery fire propagation and flame properties as well as heat transfer feedback to predict cell-to-cell propagation.

This project will lay the foundation to enable:

• Design of safer battery packs.
• Quantification of hot gases and flames emanating from ruptured battery cells
• Quantification of heat generation and fire propagation in varying realistic operating conditions for battery packs.

Candidates with a background in Fire Science, and battery safety modelling particularly encouraged to apply.

This is a full time post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed term contract until 29/03/2026.

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

1. PhD in Mechanical Engineering or in an area related to Fire Safety Engineering*
2. Good knowledge and research experiences in modelling lithium-ion battery fires especially for NMC/LFP/LCO cathode types.
3. Publications in battery fire safety or closely related area in peer-reviewed journals.
4. Proficiency in a Multiphysics software (COMSOL or related) and fire dynamics simulation software (FDS or similar)
5. Knowledge of lithium-ion battery thermal processes
6. Proficiency in Chemical Kinetics software (Cantera or similar)
7. Experience in thermal runaway modelling or experiments

* Please note that this is a PhD level role but candidates who have submitted their thesis and are awaiting award of their PhDs will be considered. In these circumstances the appointment will be made at Grade 5, spine point 30 with the title of Research Assistant. Upon confirmation of the award of the PhD, the job title will become Research Associate and the salary will increase to Grade 6

We pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming. We embrace diversity and want everyone to feel that they belong and are connected to others in our community.

We are committed to working with our staff and unions on these and other issues, to continue to support our people and to develop a diverse and inclusive culture at King's. We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the advert. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

Interviews are due to be held in September 2025.

Grade and Salary: £45,031 per annum, including London Weighting Allowance

Job ID: 123525

Close Date: 09-Sep-2025

Contact Person: Dr Francesco Restuccia

Contact Details: Francesco.restuccia@kcl.ac.uk