PhD position (TU Delft, Netherlands): Multi-scale modelling of auxetic cementitious composites

A PhD position in multi-scale modelling of auxetic cementitious composites is open at the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology. The PhD will be part of a larger ERC funded project and collaborate closely with other members of the project team. Interested candidates can apply here: https://www.tudelft.nl/over-tu-delft/werken-bij-tu-delft/vacatures/detai...

Job description

Concrete is inherently brittle. This is a problem because important structures such as nuclear power plants need ductility to remain functional after earthquakes and impacts. Auxetic Cementitious Composites-3D (ACC-3D) aims at creating novel, ductile cementitious composites by using local reinforcement architectures with an unusual quality, negative Poisson’s ratio, known as auxetics.

Currently, steel rebars or fibers are used to make concrete ductile. Such reinforcement is only active once the concrete has cracked: it prevents existing cracks from growing. Cracking might leave structures unfunctional or vulnerable to repeated events and aftershocks. Can we make reinforcement actively work with concrete already before cracking by making it auxetic? This has never been attempted before.

Emerging auxetics with complex architectures fabricated by 3D printing offer excellent energy absorption capacity. However, they have low stiffness which makes them unsuitable for structural applications.

According to our preliminary study, using auxetics as reinforcement in cementitious composites will result in high energy absorption capacity. However, the mechanism of interaction between deformable auxetic reinforcement and the stiff cementitious matrix is unknown.

As a PhD candidate you will work towards understanding these mechanisms through modelling the material at multiple length scales, from the micro-scale to the specimen (laboratory) scale. For this, an in-house developed discrete (lattice) modelling framework will form the starting point.

The project "Auxetic Cementitious Composites through 3D printing (ACC-3D)" is funded by ERC as a Starting Grant 2021. ACC-3D is organized into 2 PhD and 2 postdoc projects who will work together with the supervisor in a complementary way.

You will work in the Microlab, our high-tech laboratory at the CiTG at TU Delft, dedicated to characterization and development of cementitious materials and will be embedded in the section Materials & Environment, which hosts more than 30 PhD candidates doing research on all aspects of the construction material cycle.

Requirements

We are looking for an ambitious PhD candidate with:

• A MSc degree in a relevant field, i.e. Civil, Mechanical, or Aerospace Engineering;
• Knowledge and interest in solid mechanics, numerical and multi-scale modelling;
• Programming knowledge;
• Experience/interest in machine learning and experimental research;
• Ability to work both in a project team, but also independently and take leadership and responsibility for research tasks;
• Excellent communication skills in English, both written and oral.