Flow through porous materials is subject to a large range of applications, including fuel cells, catalysts, subsurface CO2- and energy storage, which are essential for a sustainable future.

The PD project aims for the development of novel models addressing the upscaling of molecular processes happening along interfaces in porous materials using kinetic theory. The objective is to advance digital tools for material development used for the prediction and optimisation of flow processes, such as multiphase flow and reactive transport, in porous media.

Currently, most digital models addressing this topic are built upon arbitrarily set fitting parameters, for example, shape factors, reactivity indices and contact angles. These fitting parameters are used to bypass the lack of an adequate representation of the structural and chemical material characteristics. The work in our group focusses on the characterization of this properties using different nano- and molecular measuring techniques such as AFM and iGC. Your task will be to integrate the output of such measurements into existing computational frameworks. Within this project, you will collaborate with a team of experimentalists and computationalists addressing this topic in context of the various applications and publications mentioned above support PhD students in this context.

You will become a member of the Energy Technology team at the Mechanical Engineering Department with access to a range of different state of the art lab facilities and get the opportunity to collaborate within the international porous media community, including partners from academia and industry. Together we will work on a career development plan that supports your own ambitions in academia or industry.

The work is funded by the DeepNL programme.

We welcome applications from candidates with a doctoral degree in any engineering or physical science discipline, with experience in computational fluid mechanics. The candidate should have demonstratable experience with coding and in collaborating with experimentalist.

A meaningful job in a dynamic and ambitious university, in an interdisciplinary setting and within an international network. You will work on a beautiful, green campus within walking distance of the central train station. In addition, we offer you:

• Full-time employment for 2,5 years, with an intermediate evaluation (go/no-go) after nine months. You will spend 10% of your employment on teaching tasks.
• Salary and benefits (such as a pension scheme, paid pregnancy and maternity leave, partially paid parental leave) in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities.
• A year-end bonus of 8.3% and annual vacation pay of 8%.
• High-quality training programs and other support to grow into a self-aware, autonomous scientific researcher. At TU/e we challenge you to take charge of your own learning process.
• An excellent technical infrastructure, on-campus children's day care and sports facilities.
• An allowance for commuting, working from home and internet costs.
• A Staff Immigration Team and a tax compensation scheme (the 30% facility) for international candidates.