The Professional Doctorate in Engineering (PDEng) programme Maintenance offers you a 2-year position combining post MSc education and a design project to be carried out at Apollo Tyres.

The educational programme, carried out at the University of Twente, will have an in-depth and broadening character with ample attention for professional development and will be partly tailored to the design project. In collaboration with Apollo Tyres in Enschede you will work on high level, creative new designs for complex issues.
The tyre traction ability plays a crucial role for safety on roads (especially wet), as the tyre is the only contact between the vehicle and the road. Tyre manufactures test the braking distance and wet grip label of tyres intensively at different locations to ensure safety of their products. It is well known that the tyre grip ability depends on the test surface and can vary quite a lot. The interaction between wet road and tyre can be divided into two contributions: a tread pattern and macro roughness play important role in the removal of water from the contact patch and tread material and micro roughness responsible for grip between each other. The prediction of material friction ability at early stage of tyre development is very important. There is a variety of equipment for measuring of material friction ability. The types of surfaces on which (lab) friction can be tested are very limited and not representative for real test tracks. The stability and durability of test surface are other important issues, including initial running for removal of the bitumen. The design and development of laboratory friction test with durable surfaces replicated real different test tracks will be a great advantage for the quick and correct material friction prediction.

Goal and prototype deliverable of the project

The PDEng needs to design new durable test surfaces and compare with real wet test tracks.

• Characterization of reference surfaces including macro and micro roughness. Is equal characterisation of road surface of ATP (Papenburg) full scale test section.
• Review of existing simple test devices for rubber-(road)surface friction characterization and propose, which will be used for validation.
• Design of a test procedure for chosen friction device on reference surface.
• Design of test surface prototypes.
• Design of a test procedure for bitumen removal and initial polishing or preparation of test surfaces.
• Validation of lab test surface prototypes against full-scale reference surfaces, including friction tests for different rubber compounds with  wet conditions.
• Design a procedure for deducing the effects of polishing the road surface (by running traffic or artificial) in such a way that lab tests can be compared to full-scale tests on real roads.
• Design a procedure how to proceed that at wet frictions tests an imposed amount of water is on top of the test sample road surface.

• You hold a MSc degree in Mechanical Engineering, Material Science, Industrial Design Engineering, or a related specialization;
• You have demonstrated affinity with design and multidisciplinary assignments;
• You have a passion for finding solutions for complex technological issues;
• You have excellent collaboration and communication skills;
• You are self-starting and self-motivating, willing to take initiatives and feel the responsibility for your own project;
  

Application

Please send the following documents before 14-12-2017 through the link below:

• Letter of motivation
• Curriculum vitae
• List with grades of courses attended
• References and, if applicable, a list of publications.

CONTACT INFORMATION

If you have any further questions about this vacancy of the PDEng programme in Maintenance, please contact Dr.Ir. H.L. (Henny) ter Huerne

Email: h.l.terhuerne@utwente.nl

Telephone: +31 53 489 2499 / +31 53 489 4254

General information about PDEng programmes you can find at our website.

We offer a very challenging position for two years in an inspiring multidisciplinary and international environment. In this time we will provide you with a tailor made post-master design programme that has an educational component (~50%) as well as a design project (~50%).

• A salary of € 1.828 gross per month;
• A holiday allowance of 8% of the gross annual salary and a year-end bonus of 8.3%;
• A solid pension scheme;
• Minimum of 29 holidays in case of full-time employment.

On successfully completing the programme, you will receive a certified degree. You will be entitled to use the academic degree PDEng and will be registered as a Technological Designer in the Dutch register kept by the Royal Institution of Engineers in the Netherlands (KIVI).

The University of Twente. We stand for life sciences and technology. High tech and human touch. Education and research that matter. New technology which leads change, innovation and progress in society. The University of Twente is the only campus university of the Netherlands; divided over five faculties we provide more than fifty educational programmes. We have a strong focus on personal development and talented researchers are given scope for carrying out groundbreaking research.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability status. Because of our diversity values we do particularly support women to apply.

The Faculty of Engineering Technology (ET) is one of the five faculties of the University of Twente. ET combines Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering and Industrial Design Engineering. Our faculty has approximately 1800 bachelor and master students, 400 employees and 150 PhD candidates. The departments of the faculty cooperatively conduct the educational programmes and participate in interdisciplinary research projects, programmes and the research institutes: MIRA, CTIT, SBE and IGS.