PhD Studentship: Impact Failure of Amorphous Polymers

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Engineering
Location: UK Different
Closing Date: Tuesday 30 April 2024
Reference: ENG1763

3-year PhD studentship

Supervisor: Dr Davide De Focatiis

Ballistic impression is a fancy occasion that induces a number of modes of deformation, is influenced by each materials and structural responses, and excites a really wide selection of pressure charges. In instances the place brittle failure is induced, results of processing historical past, equivalent to flaws and residual stresses, additionally play a big function within the last response. An intensive understanding of a cloth’s response to impression is important to manage harm and forestall accidents in a broad vary of contexts.

There’s a want, subsequently, to provide materials fashions that can be utilized in laptop simulations of ballistic occasions, and which comprise sufficient bodily understanding of deformation and failure behaviour to supply perception into how processing impacts the ultimate response. This mission will handle this drawback by way of a mix of modelling on the College of Nottingham and experimental growth on the College of Oxford, utilizing polycarbonate as a mannequin materials. The final word purpose is to supply fashions to grasp and simulate phenomena noticed in polymers below impression, and the impact of various polymer histories on these phenomena. This builds on present collaborative analysis, during which a brand new fee and temperature dependent constitutive mannequin has been developed, by specializing in understanding the essential polymer physics that drives fracture.

Nottingham will lead the modelling programme. You’ll construct on an present polymer constitutive mannequin and implement failure standards appropriate with the mannequin. You’ll implement a consumer materials in finite ingredient software program and validate the fabric mannequin and failure critera utilizing experimental information from our mission companions in Oxford. You’ll work collaboratively with our companions to design experiments and simulations to discover the consequences of residual stresses and thermal and floor remedies on the failure of the polymer.

Eligibility

This studentship is totally funded on the House stage (charges plus stipend) by the US Military. 

Award Worth

Course charges are coated on the stage set for UK college students (c. £5,100 p.a.). The stipend (tax-free upkeep grant) is c. £20,000 p.a. for the primary 12 months, and at the very least this quantity for an additional two years. 

Candidate Necessities

Potential candidates might be judged in accordance with how effectively they meet the next standards:

·        A primary-class honours diploma (or equal) in Engineering, Physics or Supplies Science

·        Glorious written and spoken communication abilities in English

·        Curiosity in properties of polymers, specifically below dynamic loading

·        Expertise with finite ingredient codes, ideally with Abaqus

·        Skill to program, ideally in Matlab

Candidates with a superb 2.1 diploma are additionally inspired to use if they’ll exhibit wonderful numerical abilities by way of earlier analysis or an undergraduate mission.

Utility Process

Candidates are strongly inspired to make casual enquiries and to ship a duplicate of their protecting letter, CV, and educational transcripts to Dr Davide De Focatiis ([email protected])

Begin date: October 2024

The College of Nottingham is a supportive, inclusive and caring group, and we encourage functions from a various vary of backgrounds. The College of Engineering was the primary within the UK to be awarded an Athena SWAN Gold Award, in recognition of our dedication to supporting and advancing girls’s careers in Engineering.