PhD STUDENTSHIPS: Fluid structure interactions in marine engineering and IN bioinspired design 

The Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) (www.urv.cat) in Tarragona (Spain), is looking for several enthusiastic research students with a strong interest in fluid dynamics. Successful candidates will join a small but very active multidisciplinary team, working in fluid-structure interaction problems. The research will be focused in the area of fluid structure interaction with application to several engineering problems. The ongoing projects the candidates will join are:  flow-induced vibrations in offshore structures; flow induced vibrations offshore energy generation devices; and fluid-structure interactions in bioinspired design.The research studentships will cover URV´s PhD registration fees plus a monthly stipend, equivalent to those granted by the Spanish Ministry of Science. The work will be mainly experimental and carried out at the department, but there are also possibilities to participate in several planned experimental campaigns involving large scale facilities. There is also the possibility to use and develop prediction tools.  

CANDIDATES: Successful candidates must hold a good first degree in Engineering (equivalent to a MEng/MSc, 4 or 5 years course), preferably in Mechanical, Industrial, Aeronautical or Civil Engineering. The candidate must meet the requirements to enrol in one of the PhD programs of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona (http://www.etseq.urv.es/DEQ/Doctorat).Preference will be given to candidates able to demonstrate the following desired skills:

- Matlab, C/C++, FORTRAN or other scientific programming language.

- LabVIEW or other instrumentation oriented programming language.

- Mechanical engineering design tools such as Pro/Engineer, Solidworks…

-  Finite Element packages such as ANSYS, ABAQUS,…

- Experience with the use of optical measurement techniques, especially PIV.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE: Interested candidates should send the following documents (in English or Spanish) before May 31st to Francisco J Huera-Huarte (francisco.huera@urv.cat). Candidates must be able to start around September 2009.

- Complete CV (with photography)

- List of subjects and grades of first degree.

- Motivation letter (max. 500 words)

- Name and contact details of 2 academic referees.

For more information on related activities developed at the department visit: http://www.etseq.urv.es/personal/fhuera or write an email asking for information to francisco.huera@urv.cat.

LIVING IN TARRAGONA INFO: