Specialist position researcher in experimental mechanics of multi-functi

Join our research team focused on structural battery composite materials. As a Researcher you carry out research in an interdisciplinary research team, with experts in materials science, physics, chemistry and computational mechanics. Your responsibility will be to lead the development of combined mechanical and electrochemical loads on structural battery composites and their constituents. You will also make all-fibre structural battery composites and characterise their multifunctional performance using the developed test methods. The experimental work will be performed in Chalmers' composites laboratory.

Information about the research and the division
You will perform research in several projects and be part of the activities on Structural battery composites at Chalmers. You will also propose new research projects in this area to Swedish and European research funding agents. Chalmers has pioneered this research for more than one decade. Currently, the Chalmers' team comprise approximately 10 people. The research is performed in an interdisciplinary team across Chalmers and at our partners at KTH The Royal Institute of Technology, Imperial College London and Deakin University in Australia. You will also be involved in research at Chalmers' Competence Centre 2D-Tech, where we develop structural positive electrodes using different grades of graphene oxide to coat carbon fibres using an EPD-process.

Batteries in today's electric cars and imminent electric aircraft constitute a large part of the vehicles' weight, without fulfilling any load-bearing function. A structural battery, on the other hand, is one that works as both a power source and as part of the structure - for example, in a car body, aircraft interior or laptop casing. This is termed 'massless' energy storage, because in essence the battery's weight vanishes when it becomes part of the load-bearing structure. Calculations show that this type of multifunctional battery could greatly reduce the weight of an electric vehicle.

For structural batteries to be useful they must perform their electrical energy storage and supply functions under severe mechanical loads, and vice versa their mechanical integrity must be maintained for all states of charge. For this purpose, we use carbon fibres as structural negative electrodes and as reinforcement and electron collectors in the positive electrode. The electrodes are separated by a thin electrical insulator layer and all soaked in a structural battery electrolyte. The electro-chemo-mechanical processes occurring in the structural battery composite are coupled. That is, as the charged structural battery is mechanically loaded the potential changes and the mechanical properties are affect by the state of charge. To date, no experimental methods to characterize these coupled processes in structural batteries are available. Such in-tandem methods are to be developed as part of this work.

The Researcher will be placed at the Division of Material and Computational Mechanics (Department Industrial and Materials Science). The work will be carried out in close collaboration with researchers at the Division of Materials and Manufacture and the Department of Physics at Chalmers.
For more information you find a recent video on massless energy storage - a structural battery with record performance on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB81lkPGGlE.

Major responsibilities
Your major responsibility as a Researcher is to pursue your own research tasks related to the projects, secure new projects, and to lead doctoral and master students as they involve in related activities. 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.

You are expected to contribute to the development of Chalmers' composites laboratory.

In addition to the research project, you will contribute to teaching at the Department, corresponding to up to 20 percent of working hours.

Contract terms
Full-time permanent employment.

Qualifications
A doctoral degree in mechanics of materials is required for this position. You have extensive experience from research on multifunctional composites, in particular on structural battery composites and their design, theoretical analysis and experimental characterization. In this context, the candidate demonstrates experience in interdisciplinary research, and has documented experience of international research collaboration in the field.

Since communication of research results towards academic and industrial partners is a central part of the work, communicative skills in English (oral as well as in writing) are vital. Our research on structural battery composites is performed by an interdisciplinary team of scientists. You must therefore be able to interact and collaborate with other individuals, with different backgrounds, in your research and take full responsibility for your own tasks in the collaborative research effort. Furthermore, it is also expected that you have the ability to take own initiatives and, when needed, work independently. At the same time, being a successful researcher also involves dissemination of results within existing and new networks, both within academia but also to industry and society. Therefore, networking skills, team work skills and quality assurance are important.

Knowledge of the Swedish language is a requirement as you are expected to be involved in teaching of students on the undergraduate level. You are expected to be able to teach in Swedish within two years after you start your employment.

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.

More infromation and apply here 


Application deadline: December 18, 2022

For questions, please contact:
Prof. Ragnar Larsson Material and Computational Mechanics, ragnar.larsson@chalmers.se,
Tel: +46(0)317725267