Salary/stipend: Scholarship covers full UK/EU PhD tuition fees and a tax-free stipend of £17,500.
Closing date: Open until filled

The project:

We are delighted to offer an exciting PhD studentship on “long-range acoustic propagation effects”, in collaboration with the Forensic Seismology team at AWE who provide technical advice to the UK government regarding verification of Nuclear-Test-Ban treaties. This project involves both experiment and theoretical work.

Numerous studies have shown that the atmospheric acoustic propagation paths control recorded infrasonic waveform characteristics; these paths interact with both the ground surface and highly variable meteorological conditions. Over the past fifteen years advances in infrasound propagation modelling have focused upon understanding meteorological effects. Studies of infrasound propagation paths that traverse regions of complex topography highlight the need to further understand topographic controls.

In this project we will investigate topographic controls on infrasound by undertaking a series of scaled experiments in an environmentally controlled laboratory setting. This will allow the separation of topographic effects from meteorological effects, which is extremely difficult to achieve under field conditions.

The student will construct simplified scaled topographic boundaries and will use University of Bristol’s state-of-the-art anechoic chamber facility to record acoustic wavefields propagating across such boundaries. The student will also use our existing numerical acoustic propagation models and will also develop new mathematical and FE (COMSOL) models for simulating long-range acoustic propagations.

How to apply:

Please make an online application for this project at http://www.bris.ac.uk/pg-howtoapply. Please select <programme title> on the Programme Choice page and enter details of the studentship when prompted in the Funding and Research Details sections of the form

Candidate requirements: Applicants must be UK/EU residents and should have a first or supper second class degree in a Mechanical Engineering, Physics, Mathematics, or other related science/engineering discipline.

Funding: AWE Scholarship covers full UK/EU PhD tuition fees and a tax-free stipend of £17,500.

Contacts: For general enquiries, please email gsen-pgrs<στο>bristol.ac.uk

If you wish to discuss any details of the project informally, please contact Dr Mahdi Azarpeyvand (m.azarpeyvand<στο>bristol.ac.uk) or Dr David Green (dgreen<στο>blacknest.gov.uk)