PhD Studentship in Production Technology

Work Integrated Learning (WIL) is University West’s overarching profile and basic principle applied to learning, the exchange of ideas, and educational development. The government has assigned the distinguished task of developing WIL to University West. Work integrated learning in education and research develops new, relevant and advanced knowledge both within the academy and among its partners, which also benefits society in general. University West offers a wide variety of study programs, has a good number of applicants and the students show a high entry rate on the labor market. The main research environments at University West are Production technology, Learning in and for the new working life and Child and youth studies and is conducted in collaboration with the surrounding society. Campus is centrally located in Trollhättan with about 15,000 students and 675 employees.




University West is offering a PhD Studentship in Production Technology – Simulation based optimization of an ultrasonic technique used for non-destructive evaluation

In aerospace industry, there are increasing demands on cost-efficient, reliable and safe aero-engines with reduced fuel consumption and environmental impact.

These requirements have stimulated the development of new advanced manufacturing technologies and light weight technology based on fabrication and additive manufacturing (AM). This raises also higher demands on product quality assurance and reliable and cost-effective non-destructive testing and material characterization methods in order to maintain the quality and safety levels. In addition, new regulations of qualification/certification of used techniques within the industry, have called for a more theoretical treatment of the subject and mathematical modelling of NDT has received attention as a cost efficient and powerful tool in several areas of applications.

The scientific part of the project
The focus of this project will be on phased array ultrasonic inspection of Powder Bed Fusion (PBF) additive manufactured material. The aim is to explore how mathematical modeling of the inspection can facilitate the detection and characterization of (new to NDT) material defects originating from the PBF manufacturing process. Therefore, both mathematical modeling of the inspection as well as experimental validation of the results will be conducted.

More specifically the plan is to modify and extend an existing ultrasonic inspection simulation software (simSUNDT) and use it to optimize available well-established techniques (NDT) and procedures (NDE) in order to adapt those to the new PBF specific challenges (e.g. orientation of defects and their NDT characteristics). We predict that the mathematical modeling will facilitate the derivation and identification of possible nonconventional parameters in the ultrasonic information (frequency or phase information), to characterize defects as pore, inclusion and e.g. orientation of LOF.

The PhD student in this project will be part of a large research project PODFAM (POwDer Bed Fusion Additive Manufacturing of Metals for Gas Turbine Applications) at University West, which is dedicated for powder bed fusion additive manufacturing research. The results from this project will be regularly presented at PODFAM meetings, which certifies that the research is in line with what industry needs.

PhD degree program: Production Technology

Job description:
The research program includes, in addition to participation in third-cycle courses and other activities, implementation of an independent thesis work. Doctoral students shall primarily devote themselves to their own education. A doctoral student may, however, be engaged to a limited extent in education, research and administration, mainly within Production Technology. Such duties, before a doctorate has been conferred, may not occupy more than 20 per cent of full-time working hours. (Higher Education Ordinance (SFS 1993:100) Chapter 5 section 2).

Qualification requirements: 
The basic eligibility requirements for doctoral programs as set out in the Higher Education Ordinance are as follows:

- A degree at master’s level,
- completed courses totaling at least 240 university credits of which a minimum of 60 at master’s level or,
- substantially equivalent knowledge gained in some other way whether in Sweden or abroad.

To fulfil the special eligibility requirements for a doctoral degree in Production Technology, a student must hold a degree at master’s level in a subject relevant to the doctoral degree subject. This degree may be in Mechanical engineering, Applied Physics (material science), Engineering Mathematics, Engineering Physics or equivalent, with a thesis project corresponding to at least half a year of study. The eligibility requirements may be fulfilled by studies in Sweden or abroad.

These qualification requirements do not have to be fulfilled at the time of when the application is submitted but must be fulfilled before the applicant can be accepted for the doctoral program.

For more information please read 3.1 and 3.2 in General syllabus for the third-cycle programme in Production Technology, Ref. No 2015/1343 B 25: https://www.hv.se/en/research/research-education/courses/production-technology/

Qualifications of merit for this position:
The position requires a master’s level degree corresponding to at least 240 higher education credits in Mechanical engineering, Applied Physics (material science), Engineering Mathematics, Engineering Physics or equivalent, with a thesis project corresponding to at least half a year of study. The position requires full professional proficiency in English. You will also need to acquire Swedish proficiency within 2 years. Experience with numerical modelling, e.g. finite element modelling, scientific programming with MATLAB/Fortran/C/C++, signal processing and measurement systems are considered as are meritorious.

Emphasis will be on analytical ability, motivation, ability to cooperate but also to work independently.

We believe that a successful applicant should have a genuine interest in the development of experimental ultrasonic NDT and actively be part of building up a experimental set-up and perform the experimental verification of the developed software and algorithms (optimization schemes).

Read the entire announcement and apply for the position here: https://hv.varbi.com/en/what:job/jobID:350321/