You will join our collaborative team to develop safety envelopes for partially saturated granular materials under cyclic loading using a hydro-mechanical geotechnical model.

You will focus primarily on numerically modelling of partially saturated cyclic granular response as a function of geotechnical inputs (e.g. particle size distribution, moisture content, density, saturation ratio) and input energy. The role will involve interpreting the results from the numerical model to develop a generalised model or safety envelope to enable prediction of liquefaction of a range of partially saturated granular materials under a range of cyclic loading. The role may also involve some adaptation and extension of the finite element code.

It is essential you have a  PhD or equivalent professional qualifications and experience in computational modelling of partially saturated soil mechanics and cyclic loading as relevant to the project eg. civil engineering, geotechnical engineering a long with a background in partially saturated and cyclic geotechnical numerical modelling. In addition, you will have constitutive modelling and programming skills. Experience using Abaqus FEA and GiD post processor software and programming in Fortran and Python is preferable.

This research project is inter-disciplinary, and you will work with team members who have expertise in geomaterials, ship science and GIS data integration. The project forms part of an international, cross-sector, multi-disciplinary project funded by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation ‘Solid Bulk Cargo Liquefaction: Strategies for Effective Controls.’

You will be based at the new National Infrastructure Laboratory on the University’s Boldrewood Innovation Campus, and you will be embedded within professional networks addressing the challenges of onshore and offshore infrastructure and decarbonisation as part of the Southampton Marine & Maritime Institute (SMMI) and the UK Collaboratorium for Research on Infrastructure and Cities (UKCRIC).

We can offer an attractive research environment on our new Boldrewood campus, the latest facilities and access to a variety of staff development opportunities.

Please go to https://jobs.soton.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx?ref=1762822EF for more information and to apply for the this position.