CerTest Research Associate

Job title: CerTest Research Associate (Fixed Term)

Department:Mechanical Engineering

Salary;Starting from £33,199, rising to £39,609

Grade: Grade 7

Placed on; Friday 19 July 2019

Closing date; Monday 30 September 2019

Interview dateTo be confirmed

ReferenceCT6933

CerTest Research Associate in Analysis and Testing of Aerospace Composites

Fixed term contract for two years with a possible 1-year extension

CerTest – full title 'Certification for Design - Reshaping the Testing Pyramid' – is a £6.9M investment by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) in the form of a Programme Grant. Research in CerTest will be conducted by a close partnership of academic institutions; University of Bristol (lead), University of Bath, University of Exeter and the University of Southampton, with strong industrial and stakeholder support from Airbus, Rolls Royce, BAE Systems, GKN Aerospace, CFMS, the National Composites Centre (NNC), the Alan Turing Institute, and with close interaction with the European Aviation Safety Agency.

CerTest addresses barriers to validation and certification of composite aerostructures posed by the so-called 'building block approach' (or 'testing pyramid'), which is the backbone of current validation and certification processes. CerTest represents a decisive step towards 'virtual testing' on the structural scale, and aims to reduce development cost and time to market, as well as to enable more structurally efficient and lightweight composite aerostructures that are essential for meeting future fuel and cost efficiency challenges.

The core research challenges in CerTest are strongly multidisciplinary, and will be addressed by a world leading interdisciplinary team of academics and postdoctoral researchers, supported by a group of PhD studentships carried out in close collaborations with the industrial partners.

You will contribute to the development of new methodology to certify the structural-scale strength of advanced composite products. This will involve contributing to the creation of a test programme to measure the strength of composite components, as well as preparing, collecting and analysing data for the numerical and statistical analysis (developed by other researchers in the team).

You should hold a PhD in solid mechanics and have a good understanding of structural and material failure.

Experimental expertise (CT, C-scan DIC) and/or an understanding of FE modelling & of statistical methods would be an advantage, as would some experience of composites manufacturing.

Please include a covering letter, detailed CV and an abstract of your PhD thesis with your application.

For more details please contact Dr Andy Rhead (A.T.Rhead@bath.ac.uk) or Prof Richard Butler (R.Butler@bath.ac.uk).

For more information about CerTest see: https://certest.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/

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The University of Bath is an equal opportunities employer and has an excellent international reputation with staff from over 60 different nations. To achieve our global aspirations, we welcome applicants from all backgrounds

In your application, please refer to Polytechnicpositions.com