20-04-2020
A call for a research scholarship for a doctoral student in the scope of Railway maintenance is open under the following conditions:
Scientific Area: Mechanical and Structural Engineering
Admission requirements:
a) be enrolled in a PhD.
Applicants who have obtained the degree abroad must have the degree recognized in Portugal, under the terms of Decree-Law No. 66/2018, of 16 August.
Work plan: The work proposed aims to develop simplified models, capable of representing sections of railway track according to current conditions and providing results of dynamic analysis within a reasonable period of time. To achieve this goal, it will be necessary to develop two modules for automatic data generation. One of these modules, called the Correspondence Modulus, will aim to determine input data for simplified models, derived from three-dimensional models. Due to a significant uncertainty in the input data, the numerical calibration will use in the first phase Design of Experiments to identify decisive model factors and their interactions, and in the second phase these factors will be subjected to the stochastic model update technique. The Correspondence Modulus will be developed to be able to incorporate several rehabilitation measures and, thus, the simplified models will be able to provide the performance indices before and after the implementation of the intervention. This is important for an evaluation of the additive value of the rehabilitation in a quantitative way, namely in terms of the dynamic performance parameters. The other modulus will be used to enable the loading of data from track monitoring to identify the three-dimensional models. This modulus will have to be accompanied by an adaptation of the collected data, because, although they can represent the geometry of the track in an exact way, may be incomplete in the specification of the substructure. In this development, it will be necessary to ensure that the collected data will form a physically viable three-dimensional model. Analyses results obtained from the simplified models will form an extensive database that will be incorporated in a platform of free online access and subject to a cost-benefit analysis, considering other than the dynamic performance factors, but that part of the work will be developed by collaborators.
Applicable legislation and regulation: Law No. 40/2004, of 18 August (Statute of the Scientific Research Fellow) in the wording given by Decree-Law No. 123/2019, of 28 August; FCT Research Scholarship Regulation, available at
https://www.fct.pt/apoios/bolsas/docs/RegulamentoBolsasFCT2019.pdf .
Workplace: The work will be carried out at IDMEC-Institute of Mechanical Engineering and at the Department of Civil Engineering of the NOVA School of Science and Engineering, under the scientific supervision of Professor Zuzana Dimitrovová.
Duration of the scholarship: The scholarship will have a duration of 6 months, starting in October 2020, possibly renewable up to a maximum of 12 months.
Monthly maintenance allowance amount: The scholarship amount corresponds to € 1,064, according to the table of scholarship values directly attributed by FCT, I.P. in the country
(http://www.fct.pt/apoios/bolsas/valores). The payment will be processed by Bank Transfer.
Selection methods: The selection methods to be used are as follows:
(i) suitability of the fields of the completed courses (bachelor's and master's degrees) and of the doctoral course to the work plan;
(ii) curriculum evaluation;
(iii) knowledge of the use of commercial finite element software;
(iv) evaluation related to grades of disciplines of Dynamics and similar;
(v) involvement in research tasks;
with the respective weight of 20% in each of the points mentioned above.
Composition of the Selection Jury: Z. Dimitrovová (IDMEC, president), Prof. H.C. Rodrigues (IDMEC, vowel), Prof. J.M.Guedes (IDMEC, vowel)
Form of advertising / notification of results: All candidates will be notified by e-mail of the Final Evaluation Result.
Application deadline and form of submission of applications: The competition is open from 1 May to 15 May
Applications must be formalized by sending the following documents: Curriculum Vitae; qualification certificate; letter of motivation, proof of enrolment in a cycle of studies leading to obtaining a doctor's degree.
These documents must be sent via e-mail to: zdim@fct.unl.pt
Link to official announcement in Eracareers
http://www.eracareers.pt/opportunities/index.aspx?task=showAnuncioOportunities&jobId=123830&idc=1
