Applications are welcome for a PhD position at University of Genoa (Italy). The main objective of this doctoral project is to devise sustainable and bio-based soil stabilisation methods to replace conventional and energy intensive alternatives (e.g. cement and/or lime stabilisation). The PhD candidate will work on both the experimental characterisation and modelling of the hydromechanical and hygrothermal behaviour of the stabilised soils. The PhD candidate will also spend a period of six months during the 2^nd Year of the project at the company Envirosoil, based in the United Kingdom. The opportunity to apply a selected stabilisation method in the field is envisaged.

We are looking forward to receiving applications from highly-motivated and curious candidates with a First Class Master’s degree (or equivalent) in civil engineering with a specialisation in geomechanics or other relevant fields obtained before 31/10/2021.

The position is funded for 3 years commencing from January 2022 (starting date cannot be postponed).

Applications should consist of a CV and a research proposal of about 4-5 pages including short description of research interests, context of the proposed project, general overview, plan of research activities.

Applications must be submitted at the following weblink:

http://dottorato.dicca.unige.it/eng/index.html

The successful applicant will work under the joint supervision of Pr Domenico Gallipoli and Dr Agostino Walter Bruno.

Deadline for applications: Mid-October

Contact details for further information:

domenico.gallipoli@unige.it

agostinowalter.bruno@unige.it

The Department of Civil, Environmental, Land, Building Engineering and Chemistry (DICATECh) of Politecnico di Bari invites public applications for a 3-years scholarship for the PhD programme in Risk, Environmental, Territorial and Building Development (DRSATE) to carry out a doctoral research on landslide risk mitigation.

The deadline for application is at 15:00 (Italian time) of 18 October 2021.

Further details in the attached file.

Droughts (water stress) and extreme heat events (rising temperature and vapor pressure deficit (VPD)) can drastically reduce carbon uptake via downregulating photosynthesis, and can trigger tipping points such as widespread vegetation mortality. Researches into the mechanisms governing when, where and how trees die have revealed that plant xylem hydraulic traits are the predominant significant predictors of cross-sites and species patterns in drought response of ecosystem functioning. Specifically, water stress-induced declines in xylem water potential, deteriorates the hydraulic conductance of xylem tissue and forms embolisms that impair water transport, cascading a series of failures of key dependent processes (e.g., gas exchange, photosynthesis, phloem transport), leading to tissue desiccation and ultimately to vegetation mortality. Furthermore, plant hydraulics  convolute with subsurface soil water/heat/carbon dynamics, which make the soil-water-plant-energy interaction an intricate topic.

Remote sensing of fluorescence and plant-hydraulics-based vegetation models are state-of-the-art approaches to monitor and predict drought responses of ecosystem functioning. In EcoExtreML project, you are expected to enhance/reinforce the coupling between the vegetation photosynthesis model (SCOPE) with the soil moisture/heat model (STEMMUS, considering dynamic root growth), synergized with Earth-Observation data, to understand how water-carbon dynamics of ecosystem vary with variable environmental and climate stress. You are expected to work with a multidisciplinary team, consisting experts from vadose zone hydrology, ecohydrology, remote sensing, big geodata analytics, machine learning, as well as eSciences.

More information to be found on this website: https://www.utwente.nl/en/organisation/careers/!/185/researcher-for-the-ecoextreml-project

The section of Geo-Engineering at Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands) is searching for a doctoral student to enhance the understanding and the modelling of the coupled hydro-mechanical behaviour of soft soils subjected to cycles of environmental and mechanical loads.

Soft highly organic soils are widespread in the foundation layers of the built environment all over the world. They contain organic matter, roots and fibres, which improve their mechanical response. However, these soils are extremely vulnerable to climate-related hazards. Increasing climatic stresses, such as heat waves, drought, and more frequent intense precipitation accelerate the degradation of organic soils, by increasing their drying and shrinkage rate above the water table and their decomposition rate under water, with gas generation and exsolution. Both these mechanisms, drying and gas exsolution, ultimately contribute to significant land subsidence and reduction in available resistance. Quantifying the geotechnical engineering consequences of seasonally varying loads, including drying-wetting, temperature cycles and degradation, on organic soils is extremely challenging due to the complexity of a proper description of multi-physics gas-liquid-solid interaction. The project aims at deepening the understanding and the modelling of these coupled processes, to mitigate the climate-related hazard in natural soils and to assist in the design of durable innovative green solutions.

The twofold aim of the PhD project is:

• To experimentally investigate the coupled hydro-mechanical behaviour of organic soils subjected to cycles of environmental (e.g. drying and wetting, temperature) and mechanical loads. Soft soils reinforced with natural and artificial organic fibres will be tested, to quantify the role played by fibres, gas and fabric on their mechanical behaviour.
• To enhance existing constitutive models in order to include the effects of environmental factors such as drying-wetting cycles, temperature cycles and degradation in the prediction of their geotechnical properties.

More information about the vacancy and the employment conditions can be found in this PDF FILE.

Are you interested in this vacancy? Please apply before 17 October 2021 via the TU Delft website (Job details (tudelft.nl)) and upload: a detailed CV, motivation letter (1 page maximum), contact details of 2 referees.

For further information please contact:
Dr. Stefano Muraro: S.Muraro@tudelft.nl
Prof. Dr. Cristina Jommi: C.Jommi@tudelft.nl

The Nottingham Centre for Geomechanics (NCG) is currently undertaking two large multi-disciplinary projects related to investigating the behaviour of coal-mining spoil materials with a focus on the geotechnical, sustainability, environmental, socio-economic and long-term management challenges. NCG brings together expertise from the worlds of civil, geotechnical, and mining engineering as well as mathematics and material sciences to solve all forms of soil and rock-related design and construction problems. The projects are funded by the European Commission Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS) and include project partners from across Europe. We seek a highly motivated researcher to join our team to work on this challenging project.

We are looking to recruit a post-doctoral researcher who will support the work of these RFCS projects as well as support the wider work of the research group. We are looking for someone with a strong numerical and/or constitutive modelling background in geomechanics, preferably someone with experience using ABAQUS.

Candidates should be inquisitive, with a strong interest in applied research, and the personality and drive to interact effectively with industry and project partners. They will have a first degree in Civil Engineering or cognate subject and will have been awarded a PhD (or have submitted their thesis for examination), ideally in an area of Geotechnical Engineering. The successful candidate will have good presentation and report writing skills. A good publication record will be an advantage but its absence should not hinder applications from those who have recently submitted their theses.

For application details see https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/jobs/currentvacancies/ref/ENG373021

Further information about the work of the Nottingham Centre for Geomechanics is available on www.nottingham.ac.uk/ncg/

Dr Xuzhen He from UTS is seeking high-achieving PhD students in 2022. The research project is “Multiscale modelling of fluid–particle transport in porous media”, which is funded by the Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Candidates with knowledge and research experience in computational fluid mechanics, discrete element method, and/or multiscale modelling are encouraged to apply.

Applications can be sent to Dr Xuzhen He (xuzhen.he@uts.edu.au). The positions are open until filled.

More information in this pdf file.

The Department of Civil, Geological and Mining Engineering of Polytechnique Montréal is seeking exceptional candidates for a tenure track faculty position at the assistant or associate professor level.

The successful candidate must hold a Bachelor’s degree and a Ph.D. in Civil engineering or a relevant discipline, with a specialization in geotechnical engineering.

Candidates are invited to submit an application that includes:

• their résumé;
• a description of their area of expertise;
• a statement of their teaching and training objectives;
• a description of their proposed research objectives and program;
• official records of their diplomas;
• full contact information of three (3) persons able to provide references;
• a few examples of work relevant to the position;
• three (3) recent scientific contributions;
• teaching evaluations if applicable.

Applications must be received no later than November 1^st, 2021 at 5:00 pm, and submitted to:

Professor Richard Simon, ing., Ph.D.
Acting Director
Department of Civil, Geological and Mining Engineering
Polytechnique Montréal
PO Box 6079, Succ. Centre-Ville
Montreal (Quebec) H3C 3A7
CANADA

E-mail: candidaturescgm@polymtl.ca

Examination of the applications will begin as soon as possible and will continue until the position is filled.

More information on this website.

We are now seeking highly motivated PhD students to conduct advanced research topics associated with geoenergy, geoenvironment and geohazards in Westlake University (a brandnew high-level research institution in China).
Dr. Sergio’s M3 Lab has the expertise, and in-house codes, on several areas of computational, physical and theoretical modelling of complex processes commonly found in Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering.

Research Topic

The PhD program mainly focuses on interactions between solid, liquid and gas phases at microscopic scale during the processs of gas transport in saturated granular materials. Both experimental and numerical studies will be conducted to understand the complex multiphysical process. The Lab provides advanced experimental facility and in-house code (MECHSYS: http://mechsys.nongnu.org/) to perform the research. The outcome of the research is expected to be beneficial to the gas hydrate development, carbon dioxide sequestration and solid waste disposal, etc.

How to apply

Please contact Professor Sergio Torres (s.torres@westlake.edu.cn) with your CV and transcripts.

Useful Links

Dr. Sergio’s M3 Lab https://m3.westlake.edu.cn/index.htm
Westlake University https://en.westlake.edu.cn/about/westlakefacts/

KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, is searching for a doctoral student to be employed at the Division of Soil and Rock Mechanics. The work tasks are related to doctoral studies leading to a Licentiate degree, if the study plan is followed. (Opportunity to continue working to a PhD degree is very likely to be offered, but cannot be completely guaranteed at this point. Licentiate is an intermediate degree.) The studies are connected to the research project “Piling in soil with high boulder content: study of pile refusal in different soil types”. Driven piles in till or esker material often encounter boulders. This can cause structural failure to the pile, causing delays and additional costs. However, assessing the probability of pile refusal is challenging and existing tools are simplistic. The purpose of the research project is to develop a methodology for assessment of the risk for pile refusal in different soil types and for different pile driving equipment. This should facilitate cost-effective pile driving, minimizing delays and material use.

The work tasks include case studies of piling work, analytical, numerical and probabilistic calculation modelling, field work, writing scientific articles, taking postgraduate courses, and teaching. The employment comes with a competitive salary in line with what is offered to newly graduated engineers working in the Swedish construction industry. The vacancy ad and further details about the project and the employment can be found here: KTH Vacancies

The Laboratory of Soil Mechanics (LMS) at the School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering at EPFL Switzerland is seeking 2 Ph.D. students to enhance our geomechanical knowledge and predictive capabilities of the mechanical behavior of engineered geological barriers.

The 2 Ph.D. students will have to gain insights into the mechanical behavior of compacted expansive clays for different mechanical loads and under different environmental conditions. They will have to develop advanced experimental campaigns and appropriate theoretical and numerical modeling tools.

LMS focuses its research activities on the protection from geo-hazards and industrial damage to the environment, landforms, and structures. Our experimental and modeling resources are mobilized to understand, describe and predict the environmental impact of the technologies of future days, such as nuclear waste disposal, petroleum and gas exploitation, transportation and storage, methane hydrate technology, CO2 geological sequestration, and energy technologies related to heat storage. The LMS is directed by Prof. Lyesse Laloui (more information about the LMS and its current research can be found at http://lms.epfl.ch/en). With specific reference to the program of which the two Ph.D. students will be part, the research activities will be crucial for suitably designing and adopting engineered geological barriers internationally.

More information in this .pdf file.

Please send your application as soon as possible with the subject line «Application for Ph.D. position 2021» to recruitment.lms@epfl.ch in a single pdf file containing all the required information. It shall include your CV and a letter of motivation. Additional documents could be needed at a later stage.