Research associate position at University of Sheffield

The successful candidate will work on the EPSRC funded research project 'Ultimate and permissible limit state behaviour of soil-filled masonry arch bridges', which is being undertaken in collaboration with the University of Salford and various industrial partners (Network Rail, ADEPT, the International Union of Railways and Balfour Beatty Rail). This is an exciting opportunity to help develop the next generation of analysis and assessment techniques for masonry arch bridges, thus helping to ensure a sustainable future for structures that continue to form a vitally important part of the rail and regional road networks of the UK and other countries.

The successful candidate will develop novel detailed direct analysis models of the soil-structure interactions which take place in a soil-filled masonry arch bridge, extending the scope of conventional limit analysis models. Mathematical optimisation techniques will be used to obtain solutions, and a key challenge will be to then use such techniques to robustly and automatically identify appropriate model parameters from a large body of laboratory test data (which will include Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) data derived from digital images, to be collected by other project researchers). While the approach will be developed in the context of masonry arch bridges, this is an opportunity to develop new techniques of much broader applicability.

The successful candidate will hold a PhD (or have equivalent experience) in an engineering, mathematics or physical sciences discipline, and should have experience in one or more of the following areas: mathematical optimization, computational limit analysis, the use of system / parameter identification and/or inverse methods, geotechnical modelling, structural analysis. You will also be highly computer literate, and should have proven programming skills. Due to the nature of the tasks involved it is expected that the post-holder will be a member of the Computational Mechanics and Design Research Group, and an Associate Member of the Geotechnical Engineering Group.

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