PhD student position in railway mechanics - Optimized

material in railway crossings

Information about the research/the project/the division

The position will be at the Division of Dynamics, Department of Applied Mechanics. In the
activities at the division, we focus on numerical modelling with validation/calibration to full-
scale field studies. The general aim is to develop validated solutions and numerical
simulation tools to meet our engineering challenges. The Division is part of the Department
of Applied Mechanics, which with some 170 employees is one of the leading environments in
mechanical and vehicle research. The vision of the Department is to develop sustainable
technical solutions through the application of mechanical analysis. To this end, the six
divisions of the Department conduct world-leading research, usually in close collaboration
with national and international universities and industries. We also offer a wide range of
mechanics-based courses on undergraduate and graduate level.

Your project will be part of the activities in the Competence Centre CHARMEC - CHAlmers
Railway MEChanics. CHARMEC is a national centre of excellence in railway mechanics
established in 1995. CHARMEC is supported by Chalmers and the Swedish Transport
Administration (Trafikverket) and by an Industrial Interests Group comprising ten partners.
The long-term CHARMEC research and knowledge bank aims at reducing the railway's costs
for production, environment, operation and maintenance while improving safety, reliability
and transport quality. Currently, some 25 research projects are carried out within CHARMEC,
see www.chalmers.se/charmec.

Major responsibilities
Your major responsibilities as PhD student is to pursue your own doctoral studies. You are
expected to develop your own scientific concepts and communicate the results of your
research verbally and in writing, both in Swedish and in English. The position also includes
teaching on Chalmers' undergraduate level corresponding to 20% of full-time work. The PhD
position is time-limited to maximum 5 years.

Position summary
You are invited to apply for a PhD student position in the project "Optimized material in
railway crossings". The objective of the project is to increase the understanding of the long-
term performance and damage modes of different crossing materials by using, developing
and integrating state-of-the-art simulation tools in structural dynamics, FEM and material
modelling. Furthermore, the goal for the project is to provide guidelines for the selection of
crossing material that for a given operational scenario exhibits low deterioration, has a long
life and a low life cycle cost. High maintenance costs are related to track switches and
crossings (S&C) since these components are subjected to a severe load environment
leading to damage in the forms of wear, plastic deformation and rolling contact fatigue
cracking. Increasing vehicle speeds and axle loads and wheels with worn profiles induce
wheel-rail contact conditions generating high magnitudes of wheel-rail contact forces and
slip. A methodology for robust and numerically efficient prediction of rail profile degradation in
track switches, integrating several state-of-the-art simulation tools, will be developed. The
project will build on the knowledge from several related CHARMEC projects. The goal is to
adopt appropriate meta-models and other numerically efficient models in the simulation
methodology to calibrate and validate results versus damaged rail profiles measured in the
field. An important aspect that needs to be considered when choosing the type of model is
the accuracy and how it will influence the overall results from the simulation methodology.
Your research and modelling activities will contribute to enhance knowledge in this field.
Qualifications
To qualify as a PhD student, you must have a master's level degree corresponding to at least
240 higher education credits in a relevant field.

A suitable background is a Master of Science (Swedish: civilingenjör) in mechanical

engineering, engineering physics or civil engineering with emphasis on solid mechanics and
computational methods (e g FEM). The position requires verbal and written communication
skills in Swedish and English. If Swedish is not your native language, you should be able to
teach in Swedish after two years. Chalmers offers Swedish courses. Since communication of
research results is a central part of the work, communicative skills in English (oral as well as
in writing) are vital. Furthermore, it will also be expected that you can take on responsibility,
take own initiatives and work independently when needed. At the same time it is important
that you are good at working in teams. This is especially vital since the current project will
interact closely with adjacent disciplines and with industrial partners. Finally, you need to be
able to disseminate results and knowledge within existing and new networks.This includes
academia, industry and society at large.

Application procedure
The application should be marked with Ref 20140134 and written in English. The application
should be sent electronically and be attached as pdf-files, as below:

1. Application: (Please name the appendix: APPLICATION, Family name, reference

number)
− CV, include complete list of publications,
− Previous teaching and pedagogical experiences,
− Other, for example previous employments or leadership qualifications and positions
of trust.
− Two references that we can contact.
2. Personal letter/Qualifications: (Please name the appendix as: QUALIFICATIONS,
family name, ref. number) 1-3 pages where you introduce yourself present your
qualifications and describe your future research plans.
− Previous research fields and main research results.
− Future goals and research focus. Are there any specific projects and research
issues you are primarily interested in?
3. Other:
− Copies of bachelor or master’s thesis.
− Attested copies of completed education, grades and other certificates.

Please use the button at the foot of the page to reach the application form. The files may be
compressed (zipped).

Application deadline: 2014-05-30

For questions, please contact:

Professor Jens Nielsen

Dynamics
E-mail: jens.nielsen@chalmers.se

Professor Magnus Ekh

Material and Computational Mechanics
E-mail: magnus.ekh@chalmers.se
Phone: +46 31-772 3479