Vacancies
PhD Position on Shear Dilatancy in Concentrated Emulsions Job description In this PhD project, you will combine theoretical and numerical modeling to fill a persistent gap in our understanding of the mechanics of soft solids. When you twist a solid cylinder, its height spontaneously changes. This is one example of shear dilatancy, a well known but poorly understood nonlinear effect in solid mechanics. Shear dilatancy occurs in numerous types of soft matter, including gels, grains, pastes, and foams. Despite this ubiquity, we cannot reliably predict the amplitude or even the sign of the effect – most materials expand, but some contract. The fundamental and unresolved challenge is to identify a necessary and sufficient set of physical mechanisms responsible for shear dilatancy in soft solids. Recent experiments revealed that concentrated emulsions possess a rare property – they can be tuned to display positive or negative shear dilatancy. These systems are therefore uniquely suited to test hypotheses on the origins of shear dilatancy. In this project, you will use pen-and-paper modeling in continuum mechanics, together with molecular dynamics simulations of attractive emulsions, to perform these tests. As a PhD candidate at TU Delft, you will conduct original scientific research, report your results in international publications and presentations, and write and defend a PhD thesis within 4 years. You will also have the opportunity to mentor BSc and MSc students and co-supervise their thesis projects. Your will be supervised by Dr. Brian Tighe, an expert in the mechanics of soft solids and complex fluids. Requirements We seek a student with a passion for fundamental research who is driven primarily by scientific curiosity. The successful candidate will hold an MSc degree in physics or mechanical engineering. Demonstrated proficiency in computer simulations using LAMMPS or similar is essential. Knowledge of continuum solid mechanics is a plus, but can also be developed during the project. Excellent communication skills in written and spoken English are required. We strongly encourage candidates from underrepresented groups to apply. Doing a PhD at TU Delft requires English proficiency at a certain level to ensure that the candidate is able to communicate and interact well, participate in English-taught Doctoral Education courses, and write scientific articles and a final thesis. For more details please check the Graduate Schools Admission Requirements . Conditions of employment Doctoral candidates will be offered a 4-year period of employment in principle, but in the form of 2 employment contracts. An initial 1,5 year contract with an official go/no go progress assessment within 15 months. Followed by an additional contract for the remaining 2,5 years assuming everything goes well and performance requirements are met. Salary and benefits are in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities, increasing from € 2872 per month in the first year to € 3670 in the fourth year. As a PhD candidate you will be enrolled in the TU Delft Graduate School. The TU Delft Graduate School provides an inspiring research environment with an excellent team of supervisors, academic staff and a mentor. The Doctoral Education Programme is aimed at developing your transferable, discipline-related and research skills. The TU Delft offers a customisable compensation package, discounts on health insurance, and a monthly work costs contribution. Flexible work schedules can be arranged. For international applicants, TU Delft has the Coming to Delft Service . This service provides information for new international employees to help you prepare the relocation and to settle in the Netherlands. The Coming to Delft Service offers a Dual Career Programme for partners and they organise events to expand your (social) network. Read more and apply online! PhD Position Extreme-scale Simulations of Forced Convective Turbulence over Complex Surfaces Job description As the impact of global warming on extreme weather events, including droughts, heat waves, unhealthy pollution levels, as well as storms and extreme precipitation, are presenting themselves already, there is an increasing need to understand and predict extreme events as a result of global climate change. This is especially relevant for urban areas where most of the planet’s population now lives and where extreme events can be even more severe, both in intensity and in impact, e.g., urban heat island effects, dispersion of pollution, and flooding. Thanks to the continuous increase of computing power and progress in the development of efficient numerical methods, highly-resolved simulations of the flow in the local microclimates are becoming feasible. In this position, you will work on the forefront of this topic, in a team with long-standing expertise in highly-resolved numerical simulations, wall-bounded turbulence, and atmospheric dynamics. We will use a highly-performing numerical tool for massively-parallel, obstacle-resolving simulations of fluid flows over complex surfaces on many GPUs/CPUs. As a first step, we will focus on fundamental studies on simpler geometries using Direct Numerical Simulations of forced convective turbulence over rough surfaces. The insights from this effort will then be used to develop upscaled model closures for larger systems, specifically in an urban microclimate model where equations of thermal energy (including radiative heat transfer), humidity, and pollutants, are solved over complex surface topologies. This PhD position is based in the Process & Energy Department of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (ME). The effort will be highly integrated, framed within the TU Delft Climate Action Program, and in collaboration with the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences (CiTG). Requirements We welcome applicants with diverse backgrounds to enrich our dynamic and diverse team, especially for individuals with background on Mechanical/Enviromental/Civil Engineering, or physics. Strong background in fluid dynamics, experience in computational fluid dynamics, and programming in high-level (MATLAB/Python) and low-level languages (Fortran/C++) is important. Experience in high-performance computing is welcomed. Doing a PhD at TU Delft requires English proficiency at a certain level to ensure that the candidate is able to communicate and interact well, participate in English-taught Doctoral Education courses, and write scientific articles and a final thesis. For more details please check the Graduate Schools Admission Requirements . Conditions of employment Doctoral candidates will be offered a 4-year period of employment in principle, but in the form of 2 employment contracts. An initial 1,5 year contract with an official go/no go progress assessment within 15 months. Followed by an additional contract for the remaining 2,5 years assuming everything goes well and performance requirements are met. Salary and benefits are in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities, increasing from € 2.872 per month in the first year to € 3.670 in the fourth year. As a PhD candidate you will be enrolled in the TU Delft Graduate School. The TU Delft Graduate School provides an inspiring research environment with an excellent team of supervisors, academic staff and a mentor. The Doctoral Education Programme is aimed at developing your transferable, discipline-related and research skills. The TU Delft offers a customisable compensation package, discounts on health insurance, and a monthly work costs contribution. Flexible work schedules can be arranged. For international applicants, TU Delft has the Coming to Delft Service . This service provides information for new international employees to help you prepare the relocation and to settle in the Netherlands. The Coming to Delft Service offers a Dual Career Programme for partners and they organise events to expand your (social) network. TU Delft (Delft University of Technology) Delft University of Technology is built on strong foundations. As creators of the world-famous Dutch waterworks and pioneers in biotech, TU Delft is a top international university combining science, engineering and design. It delivers world class results in education, research and innovation to address challenges in the areas of energy, climate, mobility, health and digital society. For generations, our engineers have proven to be entrepreneurial problem-solvers, both in business and in a social context. At TU Delft we embrace diversity as one of our core values and we actively engage to be a university where you feel at home and can flourish. We value different perspectives and qualities. We believe this makes our work more innovative, the TU Delft community more vibrant and the world more just. Together, we imagine, invent and create solutions using technology to have a positive impact on a global scale. That is why we invite you to apply. Your application will receive fair consideration. Challenge. Change. Impact! Read more and apply online. View all vacancies at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering PhD Students Andrea Mangel Raventos and Allesanro Cavalli in 2 minutes about working at Process and Energy. Associate Professor Daniel Tam in 2 minutes about working at Process and Energy.
