A postdoctoral position is open at Centrale Nantes, within the Research Institute in Civil and Mechanical Engineering (GeM) https://gem.ec-nantes.fr. The position comes in the context of the NExT project: ”Understanding failure of frictional interfaces”. Understanding the behavior of dynamic shear cracks and friction evolution is relevant for a wide range of problems in different fields, such as fiber pull-out in the failure of composite materials, bimaterial structures and adhesive joints produced using advanced manufacturing techniques for automotive, electronics and biology applications. Shear ruptures are also relevant to the study of earthquakes occurring as ruptures along faults in the Earth’s crust. Interface roughness controls rupture behavior along interfaces, and it influences a broad class of rupture mechanics issues including dynamic propagation, which results in catastrophic failure.

The postdoctoral position focuses on investigating the role of roughness on shear crack propagation and friction evolution using a combined experimental and numerical approach. This project will enhance our understanding of fundamental physical processes governing failure of materials and interfaces. It will also entail the advancement of experimental and computational mechanics techniques.

The postdoctoral scholar will be supervised in conjunction by Vito Rubino https://www.ec-nantes.fr/m-vito-rubino and Ioannis Stefanou http://coquake.eu/index.php/group. The position is fully funded for 12 months (and can be extended up to 18 months) under the NExT Junior Talent program. Highly‐motivated candidates with the required skills should submit an application (including a CV, cover letter describing interests and qualifications related to the project, and contact details of two references) to Dr. Vito Rubino at vito.rubino@ec-nantes.fr.

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