Department of Mechanical Engineering

An exciting opportunity has arisen to undertake a PhD project as a part of a multidisciplinary team in sensors, systems and water engineering. A PhD studentship is available as part of the recently awarded prestigious multi-million pound, multi-institute, EPSRC funded “Assessing the Underworld” project (assessingtheunderworld.org). The overall aim of the project is to provide a step change in our understanding of the condition of buried infrastructure that facilitates modern life. The work at Sheffield is focussed on the buried water distribution systems and will build upon the existing world leading research in this field in the Department of Civil and Structural Engineering (CSE). This project will establish links between CSE and the world leading robotics research conducted at the Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering, now expanding into the new state-of-the-art facilities of the Sheffield Centre for Robotics (SCentRo) and the Leonardo Centre for Tribology in the Mechanical Engineering Department. 

The topic for the PhD studentship will be to investigate the use of ultrasound to study defects in buried pipes and the sub-structure supporting the pipe. This will be used to assess the overall health of water pipeline system. 

Areas of research will include; building ultrasonic instrumentation, designing and building piezo-electric sensors, the use of ultrasonic sensors to capture the system response and the signal processing algorithms required to analyse the captured data. The development of theoretical/ numerical models predicting propagation of acoustic waves in water pipelines as well as lab/field based experiments must be performed to facilitate this understanding. 

The successful applicant will be co-supervised between the Department of Civil Engineering and the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Requirements

Applicants should have an MEng (or BEng/BSc with MSc) passed at 2.1 or 1st, or equivalent, in an appropriate discipline, such as: mechanical, civil engineering, electronic, computer science or control systems engineering. A relevant Masters Degree and/or experience in acoustics, signal processing or sensor development would be an advantage. Applicants should be self-motivated and able to formulate and implement new ideas.

Applications

The deadline for applications is 03/04/2015.

Applications should be made by submitting a CV and covering letter explaining suitability for the role, to  Lindsay M Hopcroft (l.hopcroft<στο>sheffield.ac.uk).

Eligibility

Funding for this studentship is provided by EPSRC and is only open to full UK nationals. The studentship will provide full support, in terms of fees and a student stipend.

For details of the EPSRC eligibility requirements go to www.epsrc.ac.uk/skills/students/help/Pages/eligibility.aspx

The awarding of the two studentships will depend on the quality, and backgrounds of the applicants. 

Further Information

Please contact:

Dr Richard Collins
E: r.p.collins@sheffield.ac.uk
T: +44 (0) 114 222 5715