Research Associate
Architecture & Civil Engineering
Salary: Starting from £31,342, rising to £37,394 
Reference: CT3056

The BRE Centre for Innovative Construction Materials, based in the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering at the University of Bath, wishes to appoint a full-time Research Associate to work on an EPSRC funded research project titled 'Concrete modelled using random elements’ (EP/M020908/1) led by Dr John Orr.

The Research Associate will support this exciting new research project through their extensive experience in coding and their background in computer science, materials modelling, or engineering.

The Research Associate will also engage with and support the wider goals of the research project, which looks to change the way that we design and analyse reinforced concrete through a new method for modelling material continua based on peridynamics. This new approach to material modelling will consistently and efficiently account for the structural behaviour of reinforced concrete structures, providing the fundamental basis for new analysis, design and optimisation methods.

The Research Associate will be responsible for:

• Developing a new computational analysis method for the modelling of concrete structures, utilising the principles of peridynamics and building on proof of concept work undertaken at the BRE CICM
• Demonstrating that this analytical method can be applied to steel reinforced and steel prestressed structures to achieve the goal of minimising embodied energy of concrete structures through design optimisation
• Implementing optimisation methods for concrete structures, using the new analytical method to place concrete and steel only where they are needed
• Working with Dr Orr’s research team to validate the new computational and analytical process through laboratory experiments (undertaken by another researcher) and using these results to develop the computational model further
• Validating and undertaking code optimisation within the new analysis method to ensure efficiency in the design process
• Developing their industrial collaborations to support both the technical and the impact agenda of the project.

This post is a fixed term contract with an expiry date of no later than December 2018.

To make an online application please click the ‘Apply Through Website’ button.

Closing date: Sunday 26 April 2015. 
Interview date: Tuesday 5 May 2015.

The successful applicant will provide key computational skills to the research centre and will have experience at PhD level of working at the interface between engineering and computer science.

The successful candidate will report to Dr Orr (BRE CICM).