Do you have an interest in combining individual materials to design and optimize multi-material structures? Are you fascinated by the mechanical performance of metals and structures? Are you inspired by contributing to sustainability goals? Then please consider this Assistant Professor vacancy.
InformationModern structures ask for strong, yet light, and ductile materials, to cope with increasing structural demands. At the same time, structures should contribute to circularity and sustainability goals. This combination of properties is not often found in single materials. You, as an Assistant Professor in hybrid-metallic structures, will focus on the development, characterization, and implementation of hybrid and composite structural systems, where dissimilar metals are combined through advanced fabrication technologies, or where a metal structure is combined with other materials (bio-based, polymers, high-performance concrete) to achieve enhanced performance, reduced environmental impact, or extended service life.
Your contribution to researchYou will develop and integrate multi-material solutions on various scales, ranging from the microstructure to the building element. This can be achieved by novel fabrication and joining methods such as additive manufacturing and friction stir welding, or it can be inspired by methods used for other structural materials.
We envisage the combination of experimental tests, numerical models, analytical methods, and data-driven approaches for characterization and assessment of structural performance and durability, e.g. by means of long-term monitoring.
Key research questions to be formulated involve the intertwining between:
(a) the construction and the mechanical performance of joints (e.g. created by friction stir welding, additive manufacturing, bonding);
(b) the composite action of the multi-material structures (e.g., deformation capacity, the response to temperature action, structural stability when loaded in compression, performance in case of blast loading);
(c) the development of methods that use data of various sources and various quality in the evaluation or update of the structural reliability;
(d) the development of digital twins with predictive capabilities.
Your contribution to educationYour education contribution will include interdisciplinary BSc and MSc courses that integrate structural engineering and materials science. You will contribute to bringing sustainability and digitalization into the curricula. And you will foster cross-disciplinary collaboration among students from civil engineering, mechanical engineering, computer science, and environmental studies.
Your embedment in the research groupYou will be embedded in the group of Steel and Aluminium Structures of the Department of the Built Environment at Eindhoven University of Technology. You will complement a group consisting of a full professor, an assistant professor, two lecturers, a postdoctoral researcher, and 10 PhD students. The group has an excellent track record in the structural performance of metallic structures, has vast experience in advanced numerical modelling and it is supported by outstanding laboratory facilities:
https://www.tue.nl/en/research/research-labs/structures-laboratory