PhD student position in Acoustics

The announced PhD position is a unique chance to join one of Europe's most active groups dealing with modelling of rolling phenomena situated at the Division of Applied Acoustics, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The group led by Prof. Wolfgang Kropp has a strong focus on the interaction of tyre and road during rolling including aspects such as noise generation, rolling resistance and wear. During the last years, in the framework of the Competence Centre CHARMEC – CHAlmers Railway MEChanics (www.chalmers.se/charmec), the focus has been extended to include wheel/rail interaction and noise.

Information about the project
The PhD project deals with the generation and mitigation of rolling noise from rail vehicles on slab tracks. Slab tracks also called ballastless tracks are a modern form of track design that has been used frequently for high-speed lines in many places in Europe. One of the main advantages of slab tracks is their superior stability in comparison to conventional ballasted track, but they are also known to be noisier. The overall goal of the project is to identify cost-efficient and durable noise reduction measures for slab tracks.

The PhD student will be supervised by Prof. Wolfgang Kropp and Dr. Astrid Pieringer who has 10 years of research experience in the area of wheel/rail noise.

The project will be part of the activities in the Competence Centre CHARMEC, which is the Swedish National Centre of Excellence in Railway Mechanics established in 1995. CHARMEC is supported by Chalmers, the Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket) and an Industrial Interests Group comprising nine partners. The long-term CHARMEC research and knowledge bank aims at reducing the railway's costs for production, environment, operation and maintenance while improving safety, reliability and transport quality. Currently, some 25 research projects are carried out within CHARMEC.

The project builds on results and models from previous CHARMEC PhD projects at Applied Acoustics and will be run in cooperation with the parallel CHARMEC PhD project "Design criteria for slab track structures" at Applied Mechanics.

Major responsibilities
The main part of the PhD student's working time is devoted to his/her own research studies. The PhD work deals with the design and implementation of advanced models for the prediction of rolling noise on slabtracks and for the evaluation of mitigation measures. The project may also include experimental work.

The PhD student is expected to develop own ideas and to communicate scientific results orally as well as in written form. In addition to research studies, the position includes 20% departmental work, mostly teaching duties. The PhD student will be employed by Chalmers and will receive a salary according to current salary agreements.

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

Qualifications
A suitable background is a Master of Science corresponding to at least 240 higher education credits (Swedish: civilingenjör) in mechanical engineering, engineering physics, civil engineering or similar with a strong specialization in Sound and Vibration (corresponding to a Master in Sound and Vibration). Programming skills are required. Good knowledge in MATLAB is of advantage.

Good language skills in English are required. Knowledge of the Swedish language is desired but not a requirement. Undergraduate courses are normally taught in Swedish, but the graduate level teaching is in English. Applicants who do not have Swedish as native language should be able to teach in Swedish after two years of employment.

The PhD student is expected to take initiatives, work independently when needed and take responsibility for the work. Further, the project interacts closely with the parallel PhD project and industrial partners. Thus the applicant needs to have high collaborative skills. Finally, the PhD student needs to be able to disseminate results and knowledge within existing and new networks. This includes academia, industry and society at large.

Chalmers continuously strives to be an attractive employer. Equality and diversity are substantial foundations in all activities at Chalmers.

Application procedure
The application should be marked with Ref 20160296 and written in English.
Application deadline: 31 August, 2016.

For questions, please contact:
Professor Wolfgang Kropp, Applied Acoustics
wolfgang.kropp@chalmers.se
+46 31 772 2204

Assistant Professor Astrid Pieringer, Applied Acoustics
astrid.pieringer@chalmers.se
+46 31 772 2209

 *** Chalmers declines to consider all offers of further announcement publishing or other types of support for the recruiting process in connection with this position. ***