CerTest Research Associate in fusion of numerical and test data for statistical analysis 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 (NCC), 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 test programmes via, for example, Bayesian Learning and Design of experiments, to measure the strength of composite components with defects/damage, as well as preparing, collecting and analysing data to allow integration of 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 please click here.

Further details:

• Job Description & Person Specification