PhD student position

With this project, you will have the opportunity to work on a challenging and industry-relevant project in a truly interdisciplinary team. The position is meritorious for future research duties within academia as well as in industry and the public sector. As part of your engagement at the division, you will also develop your teaching skills (up to 20 % of working time). This experience will further prepare you for future academic jobs, but also for communication tasks in industry.

The PhD student position will be placed at the Division of Material and Computational Mechanics (Department of Industrial and Materials Science). The work will be carried out in close collaboration with Prof. Martin Fagerström and Prof. Leif Asp at the Division of Material and Computational Mechanics and Prof. Tomas Grönstedt and Prof. Lucien Koopmans at the Department of Mechanical and Marine Sciences at Chalmers.

Project description
Your project is part of a research campaign to develop lightweight hydrogen storage tanks. To increase its energy density and to reduce pressure levels hydrogen has to be stored in liquid form (at cryogenic temperatures) for aircraft applications. This leads to that the material in the tank is subjected to extreme thermomechanical conditions, for which additional competence needs to be developed.

In the proposed PhD project, we aim to develop efficient computational methods that can be used to design future composite hydrogen tanks, but also an increased understanding of factors that influence the material designs and that support vehicle integrated optimisation of cryo tanks.

The bulk of the project activities will be devoted to developing composite materials models and numerical methods related to composite laminates made from very thin (tens of micrometres) carbon fibre reinforced polymer tapes. Liquid hydrogen storage is done at extremely low temperatures (-253 °C). Consequently, high thermal stresses will result and must be accounted for. Conventional laminates cannot sustain stresses generated at such low temperatures and will therefore fracture. For this reason, relatively heavy metal liners are used in contemporary tank solutions. However, by use of thin ply composites, metal liners may be avoided all together saving a substantial amount of weight and cost.

In the project, we will explore the TeXtreme thin ply composite technology developed by Oxeon (Borås). Concepts for cryogenic hydrogen tanks for space application have already been developed, but still no liner-less solution has been realised. Here, we target other transport modes, aviation and heavy road/shipping , with much larger numbers of operation cycles. For this purpose, fatigue tolerant designs must be considered.

Major responsibilities
In this project, we will together develop and validate material models (i.e. constitutive models, failure criteria, and fatigue life models) and numerical techniques to analyse thin ply composites made from both continuous and discontinuous tapes. As a PhD student, you will be central to these developments, and also responsible for the numerical implementation and validation of these tools towards experimental results obtained in a parallel project. Numerical methods allowing for efficient design of lightweight tanks for liquid hydrogen storage will be of initial focus, but the modellingscope can partly be adjusted based on the candidate's own interests.

You are expected to develop your own scientific concepts and communicate the results of your research verbally and in writing. Your research activities will contribute to enhanced knowledge in the scientific field, in particular by presenting your results in scientific journals and at international conferences.

The position also includes teaching courses within Chalmers' undergraduate level corresponding to up to 20 percent of the working hours

Qualifications
We expect that you are a highly motivated and self-propelled person, with a distinct interest in the mechanics of composite materials. You need to have a Masters degree corresponding to at least 240 higher education credits in Solid and/or Structural Mechanics (or similar), with documented high competence in computational methods and a strong foundational knowledge in the mechanics of composite materials. Furthermore, good capabilities in numerical analysis and programming is a must.

Contract terms
Full-time temporary employment. The position is limited to a maximum of five years.

We offer
Chalmers offers a cultivating and inspiring working environment in the coastal city of Gothenburg. 
Read more about working at Chalmers and our benefits for employees.

Chalmers aims to actively improve our gender balance. We work broadly with equality projects, for example the GENIE Initiative on gender equality for excellence. Equality and diversity are substantial foundations in all activities at Chalmers.

Application procedure
To apply, please go to: https://www.chalmers.se/en/about-chalmers/Working-at-Chalmers/Vacancies/Pages/default.aspx?rmpage=job&rmjob=10550

 

Application deadline: 26 September, 2022