PhD position in Materials Mechanics/Numerical Engineering/Statistical Physics “Digital Material Twin for Resource-efficient Metallic Microstructures”

Area of research:

Scientific / postdoctoral posts

Part-Time Suitability:

The position is suitable for part-time employment.

Starting date:

18.01.2024

Job description:

Innovative materials play a key role in reducing carbon emissions and promoting sustainability. Consideration of performance should begin with the microstructural composition of the materials, since microstructural properties are the core of e.g. strength, corrosion resistance and lifetime. These properties can be permanently changed by manufacturing, loading and forming processes. A fundamental understanding of the physical mechanisms that characterize and determine the microstructure properties therefore enable the development of special-tailored materials that can exploit their full potential and can be precisely adapted to the process chain associated with an application. In this project, a digital material twin for metallic microstructures shall be created based on the evaluation of microstructures on different length scales. The goal is to further develop physically based material models, which preserve important physical phenomena and yield a continuum representation of microscale mechanisms based on statistical physics. With the incorporation of a meaningful homogenization of defect structures coupled with data-driven approaches, an advanced numerical formulation shall be established which bridge the modelling of plastic material behavior from the micro to the macro scale.Innovative materials play a key role in reducing carbon emissions and promoting sustainability. Consideration of performance should begin with the microstructural composition of the materials, since microstructural properties are the core of e.g. strength, corrosion resistance and lifetime. These properties can be permanently changed by manufacturing, loading and forming processes. A fundamental understanding of the physical mechanisms that characterize and determine the microstructure properties therefore enable the development of special-tailored materials that can exploit their full potential and can be precisely adapted to the process chain associated with an application. In this project, a digital material twin for metallic microstructures shall be created based on the evaluation of microstructures on different length scales. The goal is to further develop physically based material models, which preserve important physical phenomena and yield a continuum representation of microscale mechanisms based on statistical physics. With the incorporation of a meaningful homogenization of defect structures coupled with data-driven approaches, an advanced numerical formulation shall be established which bridge the modelling of plastic material behavior from the micro to the macro scale.

This research center is part of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers. With more than 42,000 employees and an annual budget of over € 5 billion, the Helmholtz Association is Germany's largest scientific organisation.