University of Oxford – Department of Engineering Science
Duration: 3.5 years
Applications are invited for a PhD Industrial CASE Studentship funded jointly by the EPSRC and DEM Solutions Ltd to be held at the Dept. of Engineering Science, University of Oxford. The studentship fully covers University tuition fees (at EU/UK level) and provides a tax-free annual EPSRC stipend (currently £13,290), plus an additional industrial top up equivalent to 1/3 of the EPSRC stipend (around £4500). The project is expected to commence between November 2009 and March 2010; the exact start date is subject to agreement with the successful candidate.
Project description:
Most of available DEM commercial codes use spheres to represent discrete particles in order to make it computationally feasible to model systems with a large number of particles. However, it has long been known that spheres are unable to capture adequately important features of the behaviour of both non-spherical man-made particles (i.e. pharmaceutical pills) and also of the vast majority of granular soils. A new method, “potential particles”, has been recently proposed at Oxford University, to model non-spherical particle shapes, making use of mathematical functions which define roughly polygonal particles in 2D and polyhedral ones in 3D. This method has been implemented and tested into a 2D and a 3D codes developed at Oxford University showing to be a very promising approach to solving problems with non-spherical particles. The project will be jointly supervised by Dr. Stefano Utili and Prof. Guy Houlsby. In the first year of the project the student will implement the potential particle method into a commercial software, EDEM, produced by DEM Solutions Ltd. Then, the enhanced code will be used to investigate two important industrial problems: namely the optimisation of the handling of pharmaceutical pills during the production process in the second year of the project, and the interaction of earth moving machinery with the surrounding granular media in the third year.
Entry requirements:
To qualify for the full scholarship you need to be a UK national, or having been ordinarily resident in the UK for the last 3 years. Further details about eligibility are available at . You will have a good honours degree (1st Class or 2.1) or equivalent in Engineering, Computing, Computer Science or a related physical science subject, an enthusiasm for academic research, and the ability to plan and execute a novel research project working independently within a wider research team. For the full selection criteria, please see the further particulars for this post available on our website
The successful applicant will also be required to meet the Graduate Admissions criteria available at make a full graduate application. Further details about making a graduate application are available at .
Informal enquiries: for this position are welcome by email to Dr Stefano Utili (stefano.utili@eng.ox.ac.uk).
To apply:
Please send a letter of application, which should explain your interest in and relevant experience for the advertised post, together with a detailed CV, full contact details (including email addresses) of two referees (both of whom should have a working connection with you) to: Mr CJ Scotcher, Senior Administrator, Department of Engineering Science, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PJ.
The deadline for applications is noon Monday 16th November 2009. Early application is encouraged. Please quote DF09070 in all correspondence.
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