Post-Doctoral Researcher Fatigue of Composite Materials

Job description

Mode II fatigue delamination tests only go in one direction, but what happens if we reverse the shear?

Job description

To build the next generation of advanced composite materials, including for example those with morphing capabilities, we need to go beyond the use of traditional lay-ups such as cross-ply or quasi-isotropic. However, evaluating the fatigue performance of such non-traditional laminates is difficult. Current state-of-the-art methods require extensive testing which has to be repeated for each change of lay-up.
Building on the results of the D-STANDART project, the Duramorph project aims to advance our ability to predict the fatigue behaviour of arbitrary lay-ups, based on minimal testing. Finding out how minimal that testing can be, and which tests remain needed is part of the aim of Duramorph. Within Duramoprh, your position will focus on investigating the effect of fibre orientation on mode II delamination growth in CFRP lay-ups. Of particular interest is investigating the fatigue behaviour under reversed shear (R0 and R < 0 loading.
Communicate your findings via journal papers and conference presentations.
Present your findings to project partners and the industrial advisory board.
Participate in project management.
Participate in project meetings to ensure alignment with other project partners.
Job requirements
For this position we are looking for the following requirements:
A PhD degree in a relevant field, e.g. Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or similar, with a thesis topic relevant to the topic of the research.
Affinity with the topics of fatigue and delamination growth in composite materials.
Affinity with mechanical testing, ideally involving fatigue and/or fracture of composite materials
A desire to proactively acquire any new skills and knowledge needed to complete the project.
A critical attitude towards your own work and that of others.
Good written and oral communication skills, with the ability to communicate the value of your work in both academic and industry settings.
English proficiency as described on the Graduate School admission page:
https://www.tudelft.nl/lr/onderzoek/ae-graduate-school/admission
.
A desire and ability to proactively acquire new skills and knowledge is more imporant than already having a perfect match with all points mentioned above, so even if you don't meet all points above you are encouraged to apply. In that case, please indicate in your cover letter which skills you believe you still need to acquire and how you would do this.
TU Delft (Delft University of Technology)