PhD student position in solid and structural mechanics

You are invited to apply for a PhD student position in the project "Transition zone design for minimum settlement of track substructure".


Your project will be part of the activities in the Competence Centre CHARMEC - CHAlmers Railway MEChanics. CHARMEC, the Swedish National Centre of Excellence in Railway Mechanics, was 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.


Information about the research project:
Railway lines contain various types of transition zones between different track forms. An example is the transition between ballastfree (slab) track and ballasted track. At such transitions, there is a structural discontinuity introducing a gradient in track stiffness that may induce increased dynamic loads. This may generate accumulated permanent deformation (track settlement) of the substructure on the ballasted track side, which contributes to irregularities in track geometry that further increases the dynamic loads. 


The PhD project includes the following subtasks. Based on the results of an extensive field measurement campaign, which is part of the project, the performance of various transition zones between ballastfree track and ballasted track will be assessed. For a given traffic scenario, dynamic interaction between train and track will be modelled to predict the dynamic loads on the soil surface. Models of accumulated permanent deformation of ballast and subgrade due to traffic loading will be developed and calibrated versus the field measurements and laboratory data, and integrated with the model for simulation of dynamic vehicle‒track interaction. Based on a multi-objective optimisation scheme, the transition zone is optimised with respect to structural integrity and aiming for minimum accumulated track settlement. Cross-disciplinary numerical tools (FEM, MBS, Matlab) are required and will be further developed using commercial software as well as existing in-house tools developed in previous and on-going CHARMEC projects. 


The position will be at the Division of Dynamics at the Department of Mechanics and Maritime Sciences. The work will be carried out in close collaboration with researchers at the Division of Material and Computational Mechanics (Department of Industrial and Materials Science) and the Division of Geology and Geotechnics (Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering) at Chalmers. 


About the Division:
The Division of Dynamics currently has 15 faculty members and 8 PhD students. The present research activities are focused on mechanical systems, structural dynamics, wave propagation, and railway mechanics. Areas of interest relate to various problems in solid mechanics such as vibrational problems, fatigue, wear, contact mechanics, wave propagation, optimization and dynamics of smart materials and structures. The research activities range from basic research to applied projects, including theoretical and numerical modelling, and experimental activities.  The division is host for the National Centre of Excellence in Railway Mechanics (CHARMEC).

Major responsibilities
Your major responsibilities are to pursue your own doctoral studies. You are expected to develop your own scientific concepts and communicate the results of your research verbally and in writing, both in Swedish and in English. The position generally also includes teaching on Chalmers' undergraduate level or performing other duties corresponding to 10% of working hours.

Position summary
Full-time temporary employment. The position is limited to a maximum of 4,5years. You will be employed by Chalmers and will receive a salary according to current salary agreements.

Qualifications
A suitable background is a Master of Science in mechanical engineering, civil engineering or engineering physics with emphasis on solid mechanics and computational methods. The position requires oral and written communication skills in English and Swedish. Swedish is not required, but you will be encouraged to learn Swedish during employment. Chalmers offers Swedish courses. You are expected to teach tutorials in Swedish after two years.

You are expected to take initiatives, work independently when needed and take responsibility for your work. Further, the project interacts closely with adjacent disciplines and industrial partners. Thus you need to have high collaborative skills. Finally, you need 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.

Our offer to you
Chalmers offers a cultivating and inspiring working environment in the dynamic city of Gothenburg. 
Read more about working at Chalmers and our benefits for employees.

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