Three researcher positions (up to 3 years duration) are available at University of Bristol, University of Southampton and Trinity College Dublin to join the EPSRC-SFI funded project “ROBOCONE: intelligent robotics for next generation ground investigation and design”. This is an interdisciplinary project aiming to bring robotics and whole-life design to in situ soil characterisation and geotechnical analysis.

The Bristol team will focus on the mechanical development of a new site investigation tool and its preliminary laboratory testing; the Southampton team has a focus on numerical analysis; the Dublin team on calibration chamber and field testing. However, all appointees and research teams will be closely collaborating and involved across the project.

The Bristol team includes Dr Andrea Diambra, Dr Andrew Conn, Prof. Erdin Ibraim and Prof. George Mylonakis; the Southampton project team includes Prof. David White, Prof. Susan Gourvenec and Dr Benjamin Cerfontaine; the Dublin team is led by Dr David Igoe.

For more information and apply:

• Bristol team (Deadline: 7^th March 2022): https://www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find/details/?jobId=266779&jobTitle=Research%20Associate%20in%20Geotechnical%2FRobotic%20Engineering
• Southampton team (Deadline: 15^th March 2022)::  https://jobs.soton.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx?ref=1702422DA  
• Dublin team (Deadline: 10^th March 2022): email: igoed@tcd.ie

Project kick-off: June 2022.

This is a fixed term contract Post-doctoral Research Fellow position for up to 3 years, working on the ROBOCONE project, based at the University of Southampton.

You will join our team to support the development of robotic new geotechnical site investigation tool concepts. Your role will focus primarily on numerical modelling, with additional involvement in physical testing in the laboratory and the field.

ROBOCONE is a multi-disciplinary research project, in collaboration with research teams at University of Bristol and Trinity College Dublin, aiming to advance the use of robotics in civil engineering site investigation. The project is focused on new tools for advanced characterisation of static and cyclic soil properties and their use in modern geotechnical infrastructure design.

This role provides an opportunity to conduct research at the intersection of robotics, infrastructure resilience and geotechnical site characterisation. We are seeking candidates with a background in civil engineering, preferably with experience in geotechnical numerical modelling. You will be responsible for developing numerical models of the in situ tools, and exploring methods for interpreting soil parameters from in situ measurements.

You will join a major new research project comprised of teams at three universities, working alongside researchers with complementary skills in robotics and fieldwork, and a range of industry partners and international collaborators.

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).

For more information, visit the website:

https://jobs.soton.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx?ref=1702422DA

Low-Field NMR Monitoring of Hydro-Thermo-Mechanical Processes in Fine Sediments

Research project:  Pore characterization advances our understanding of the hydro-thermo-mechanical behaviour of fine sediments, which are relevant to many geotechnical infrastructures, e.g., offshore foundations, embankment dams, and energy piles. Nuclear magnetic resonance NMR non-destructively probes the pore space of wet soils using saturating water molecules and reveals both water content and pore size distribution without disturbing ongoing processes.

The project involves developing and implementing low-field NMR sensors to characterize the hydro-thermo-mechanical processes in fine sediments. The research will contribute to one or multiple of the following areas: (i) moisture transfer during drying and infiltration; (ii) desiccation crack formation; (iii) cyclic behaviour of soil-structure interface; and (iv) freezing-and-thawing processes. The successful candidate will work closely with Electrical Engineering, Geophysics and Soil Sciences.

Supervisors: Dr Budi Zhao, Dr Mike Long (Co-supervisor)

Applicant Requirements: We seek a highly enthusiastic PhD candidate who can independently plan and conduct the research project. Applicants should have a first or upper second-class honours degree in geotechnical engineering, civil engineering or other relevant fields such as mechanical engineering or physics. Excellent written, oral communication skills and a high level of competence in the English language are essential.

Stipend & fees: The successful candidate will receive a stipend of €18,000 per annum and the fully-funded tuition fees for EU/non-EU applicants. The position is funded for four years – subject to satisfactory progress.

Application procedure: Applicants should submit their CV, transcript, and contact details of two academic referees as a single .pdf document to budi.zhao@ucd.ie.

Application deadline: 15^th March 2022

Research project

Expansive clay materials and concrete have been considered as potential candidates for closure structures in high-level radioactive waste repositories.  The mechanical behaviour of clay/concrete interface has been identified as a key parameter in the development of swelling pressure and the hydro-mechanical equilibrium state obtained after the saturation of the clay materials. Optimisation of the closure structures requires thus a better understanding at various scales of clay/concrete interface behaviour.

This project aims at investigating the mechanical behaviour of clay/concrete interface in the context of geological radioactive waste repositories. Advanced laboratory experiments (mechanical tests combined with X-ray microtomography and digital image correlation techniques) will be first used to observe shearing behaviour of clay/concrete interface at various scales. The experimental results will then be used to develop and validate numerical models to predict the behaviour of the closure structures by considering the mechanical behaviour of clay/concrete interface.

Candidates profile

Candidates should have strong background in geomechanics and be interested in both experimental and numerical approaches.

For administrative reasons, candidates must be EU citizens under 26 years of age on October 1^st, 2022.

Contact and application

The application (including CV and motivation letter) should be sent to Dr. Anh Minh TANG (anh-minh.tang@enpc.fr) before March 1^st, 2022.

A PhD position is open at Université Gustave Eiffel, Nantes Campus, France. The project will focus on centrifuge modelling of soft soil reinforced by rigid inclusions subjected to seismic loading. The PhD student will carry out experimental studies on the soil-rigid inclusion-superstructure interaction taking into account several highlighted factors. The experimental study will also provide essential data for numerical modeling.

Application deadline: Friday 22nd April, 2022, 23:59 PM

For more information of the PhD project and detailed application procedure, see the attached PDF file.

We attached on this pdf file a postdoc offer on an experimental project starting this spring 2022 at INRAE, Aix-en-Provence.

The work will be devoted to investigating the changes in mechanical behavior of granular materials after injecting fine grains in the pore space under the action of internal fluid flows. The project is founded by the Carnot Institute on Water and Environment and will be supervised by Nadia Benahmed and Antoine Wautier. The starting date is flexible but preferentially during spring 2022. To apply, please send your CV and a cover letter to antoine.wautier@inrae.fr and nadia.benahmed@inrae.fr

In the framework of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action COFUND, the Doctoral Programme UNIPhD offers the most talented Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) coming from all over the world a brand new International, Inter-sectoral, Inter-disciplinary and Innovative “training through research” programme https://www.unipd.it/en/uniphd.

Within this call, we are looking for a PhD student to collaborate with us on ” Multiphysics modelling of thermal cracks in multiphase heterogenous porous materials”. This research project aims to develop a numerical model able to study the nucleation and propagation of cracks induced by thermal effects in multiphase porous materials. The developed numerical model (UNIPD & ETH) and the experimental measurements (EPFL) will allow a step forward on the interpretation of the multiphysics nature of the fracture in multiphase porous materials.

More information on this pdf file (UNIPhD_Scheda_Research_Option_V2-SanaviaLorenzo(1).pdf), the web site (https://www.unipd.it/en/uniphd) and the supervisors.

Eligibility check: https://www.unipd.it/en/uniphd-who-can-applye-eligibility-check

How to apply: https://www.unipd.it/en/uniphd-apply-now

Call deadline: 8 March 2022, at 1 p.m. CET

Lorenzo Sanavia (UNIPD Padova), lorenzo.sanavia@unipd.it – Laura De Lorenzis (ETH Zurich), ldelorenzis@ethz.ch

We’re looking for a PhD student to collaborate with us on a project on “Optimization of particle transport in polydisperse dense granular flows: towards sustainable processes”.

The project will be supervised by Patrick Richard and Riccardo Artoni at the MAST/GPEM laboratory of the Gustave Eiffel University, campus of Nantes, and by Michele Larcher at the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Bolzano in Italy, within the framework of the MSCA-COFUND Clear-Doc project.

The deadline for applications is March 21st, 2022. Applicants are invited to contact us before applying online.

Full details are available on the following webpage: https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/716908

Riccardo Artoni, Patrick Richard, Michele Larcher