PhD in dynamic modelling of lattices of marine structures

What Is Marine Engineering: Courses, Job Description & Salary

About the position

We have a vacancy for a PhD Candidate at the Department of Marine Technology within the CYBERLAB project, led by SINTEF Ocean. The project focuses on cyber-physical modelling of large lattices of marine structures.

For a position as a PhD Candidate, the goal is a completed doctoral education up to an obtained doctoral degree.

As the world moves toward harvesting renewable energy resources offshore, interconnected arrays, or lattices, of marine structures such as floating wind turbines are expected to play a role in production, converting, and storing energy. Interconnecting the structures, rather than mooring all of them separately, enables scalable modular design solutions that keep costs at a reasonable level.

Present simulation tools, experimental methods, and offshore standards are primarily developed for single floating bodies. Numerous additional challenges arise when it comes to the design and analysis of lattices, which have not been addressed thoroughly yet. For example, as the size of the lattice increases, the number of eigenmodes and the span of associated eigenfrequencies will increase. Due to scaling effects and space limitations, it is only feasible to imagine testing parts of such arrays within existing hydrodynamic test facilities. Accurate and efficient numerical models for the rest of the array must be developed, used in real-time during laboratory testing, and updated as the test results are obtained.

The PhD Candidate will be responsible for developing and applying new dynamic models for lattice structures.

You will report to the supervising professor.

Duties of the position

Nonlinear static modelling and assessment of lattices of marine structures
Development, verification, and application of dynamic models of varying levels of fidelity for complex lattice marine structures, including nonlinear hydrodynamic effects
Completion of coursework during the initial part of the employment period

Required selection criteria

You must have a professionally relevant background in marine technology, civil engineering, mechanical engineering or equivalent education
Your education must correspond to a five-year Norwegian degree programme, where 120 credits are obtained at master’s level
You must have a strong academic background from your previous studies and an average grade from the master’s degree program, or equivalent education, which is equal to B or better compared with NTNU’s grading scale. If you do not have letter grades from previous studies, you must have an equally good academic basis. If you have a weaker grade background, you may be assessed if you can document that you are particularly suitable for a PhD education.
You must meet the requirements for admission to the faculty’s doctoral program.
Strong theoretical background in structural dynamics
Programming skills in MATLAB, C, Python, or similar
Strong theoretical background in mathematics and physics

About the application

The application and supporting documentation to be used as the basis for the assessment must be in English.

Publications and other scientific work must follow the application. Please note that applications are only evaluated based on the information available on the application deadline. You should ensure that your application shows clearly how your skills and experience meet the criteria which are set out above.

The application must include:

CV, certificates and diplomas
Transcripts and diplomas for bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
A copy of the master’s thesis or draft of the thesis. Documentation of a completed master’s degree must be presented before taking up the position
Brief project proposal (1 page maximum)
Name and address of three referees
If you have them, publications or other relevant research work

If all, or parts, of your education has been taken abroad, we also ask you to attach documentation of the scope and quality of your entire education, both bachelor’s and master’s education, in addition to other higher education. Description of the documentation required can be found here. If you already have a statement from NOKUT, please attach this as well.

Joint works will be considered. If it is difficult to identify your contribution to joint works, you must attach a brief description of your participation.

In the evaluation of which candidate is best qualified, emphasis will be placed on education, experience and personal and interpersonal qualities. Motivation, ambitions, and potential will also count in the assessment of the candidates.

NTNU is committed to following evaluation criteria for research quality according to The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment – DORA.

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