The economic feasibility and safety of a geological disposal facility for radioactive waste strongly rely on the performance of the host formation. In the Netherlands, appropriate geological layers are poorly indurated clay formations. Proper characterisation and understanding of the host formation’s time-dependent chemo-hydro-mechanical behaviour is fundamental. Indeed, the disposal facility is expected to be constructed in a process lasting around a decade and operated for several decades prior to closure. However, to date, the behaviour of poorly indurated clays beneath the Dutch surface is inferred from material at much shallower depths from Belgium.

The aim of the PhD project is to experimentally characterise the mechanical behaviour of deep poorly indurated clays, with a view of contributing to the safety case for a geological disposal facility in the Netherlands.

Cores representative of a Dutch geological disposal facility have recently been obtained from a unique multi-objective research drilling. As part of the PhD project, the cores will be thoroughly characterised, and their hydro-mechanical behaviour will be experimentally investigated. The PhD candidate will benefit from world-class laboratory and imaging facilities already available in the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences of TU Delft and partner institutions (via existing strong collaborations such as EPOS-NL), and the support of experienced technical staff.

This PhD position is part of the NWO-funded Safe Environment for Clay Underground Repository (SECUUR) project. The successful candidate will integrate into a team of enthusiastic researchers working on the geological disposal of radioactive waste, including another PhD student carrying out research on SECUUR.

Further information on eligibility criteria and application procedure can be found here.

For more information about this vacancy and informal discussion, please contact Dr. Anne-Catherine Dieudonné, e-mail: a.a.m.dieudonne@tudelft.nl or Dr. Wout Broere, e-mail: w.broere@tudelft.nl.

The closing date for applications is 1^st June 2023.

This PhD thesis will be carried out within the French National Project “Earthen Constructions” gathering more than fifty partners including academics, architects, masons, civil engineering design and control offices. The candidate will therefore benefit from a strong dynamic in the field of low-carbon construction materials and from the synergy of leading universities in the field, currently handling multiple research projects in this field.

Link to the details of the proposal is provided below: PhD on rammed earth – numerical aspects

A PhD position on “Experimental study of the impact of thermo-mechanical stresses on the gas permeability of rock salt” is now open at University of Lorraine-CNRS (Nancy). More information on this pdf file.

Application deadline: June 11th, 2023

At KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm (Sweden), the Division of Soil and Rock Mechanics is searching for two postdocs to be employed in the group. The postdocs will be working in a joint research project connected to the implementation of the 2nd generation of Eurocode 7 to design of rock tunnels and hydropower dams. These two types of structures are not within the scope of the present Eurocode. A substantial work is therefore needed to ensure that the 2nd Eurocode generation and its practical application provide acceptable safety to such structures for Swedish geotechnical conditions. Concerning tunnels in rock, the research project aims to develop a scientific basis for the writing of a potential completely new part of Eurocode 7 on design of rock tunnels. Concerning hydropower dams, the research project aims to facilitate a cost-effective implementation of the 2nd generation of Eurocode 7 to dam foundations on rock. Applicability to hard crystalline rock shall be considered, as such geological conditions are very common in Scandinavia.

The vacancy ad and further details about the project and the employment can be found here: https://www.kth.se/en/api/2.61673/what:job/jobID:622699/where:4/

Last application date is 31 May 2023.

Cornell University is seeking a postdoctoral researcher to start in Fall 2023 or Spring 2024, with expertise in at least two of the following areas: computational mechanics, poromechanics, homogenization and deep learning. The flyer attached explains the details of the open position.

A fully funded PhD position for research in modelling fast granular flow is now open at Institute of Geotechnical Engineering, Universität für Bodenkultur Wien (BOKU), Vienna, Austria. The successful candidate will perform numerical simulation and laboratory tests.

More information about the position and guide for the application process:

https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/97978

The application deadline is 10.05.2023.

Dear colleagues,

We are currently recruiting 11 Ph.D. candidates across several European Universities, including at LMU Munich, within the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Doctoral Network “TREAD: daTa and pRocesses in sEismic hAzarD”.
ITN network PhD positions include various benefits including industry internships, summer schools, a strong international cohort and cross-institute collaboration.
The topics range from dynamic rupture modelling to fault mechanics; from structural geology to machine learning and more, all in the context of seismic hazard.

https://tread-horizon.eu/

Each of the 11 positions is described in more detail on this page (https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/59623), where interested students can directly apply. We aim to start all PhD positions between September and November 2023.

Extended deadline for applications: April 30, 2023

Please help us spread the word to all next generation earthquake scientists,

Kind regards,
Giulio (and Lucilla, Ylona, Alice, Bruno, André and Men-Andrin)

The detailed subject is presented in the attached file.

The PhD will be carried out at Ecole Centrale de Nantes and Université de Liège under the co-supervision of  Giulio SCIARRA, Frédéric COLLIN and Panagiotis KOTRONIS.

To apply, please follow the link https://theses.doctorat-bretagneloire.fr/sis/campagne-2023/modelisation-de-la-percolation-instable/++add++Candidate

A PhD position is currently open at University Grenoble Alpes / 3SR laboratory, for the multiscale study of the temperature-dependent behavior of cement-based materials. Please find attached a file that contains all the details about this opportunity, including the project objectives, application process and contact details.

The successful candidate will work on developing advanced computational models for the characterization of the behavior of cement-based materials under high-temperature conditions. The research team is seeking a highly motivated candidate with a strong background in material science, mechanics, civil engineering or a related field.

Geotechnical / Mechanical Engineering at University College Cork

A PhD position on “Geotechnical big data monitoring and assessment tools for evaluating whole-life performance of underground infrastructure” is now open at University College Cork.

This project will develop and improve the aforementioned two novel tools (distributed fibre optic sensing, drone, robotics and image-based defect assessment) for geo-infrastructure monitoring in collaboration with Cambridge University, UC Berkeley, Tyndall and industrial partners. The developed novel monitoring tools will be applied to 2-4 ageing & prospective underground infrastructures in a large scale to gather more comprehensive monitoring big data than previously available at lower cost.

More information in the attached pdf.