computational mechanics

1 Ph.D. position is open for a research project related to bioinspired mechanics of cutting and piercing of soft homogeneous and heterogeneous (composite) materials. The position is under the supervision of Prof. Mattia Bacca in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UBC, Vancouver – Canada. It is funded by the Human Frontiers in Science Program, in collaboration with the Bioengineering Department at Imperial College London and the Department of Ecology at the University of California.

Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing or WAAM techniques are attracting interest from the manufacturing industry because of their potential to produce large metal components with low cost and short production lead time. This process exists alongside other high deposition rate metal AM technologies such as powder and wire based DED. While these use either laser or an electron beam as energy source to melt a metal powder or wire, WAAM technologies melt metal wire using an electric arc.

1 postdoctoral position is open for a multidisciplinary project related to the mechanics of the cytoskeleton and the adhesion of cells on collagen substrates. The position is in co-supervision with Prof. Mattia Bacca and Prof. Gwynn Elfring in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UBC, Vancouver – Canada. It is carried on in collaboration with the BC Cancer Research Center and the Biomedical Research Center at UBC.

Arc welding based additive manufacturing or WAAM techniques are attracting interest from the manufacturing industry because of their potential to fabricate large metal components with low cost and short production lead time. This process exists alongside other high deposition rate metal AM technologies such as powder and wire based DED. While these use either laser or an electron beam as energy source to melt a metal powder or wire, WAAM technologies melt metal wire using an electric arc.

Over the last years, UGent-MMS has developed the stand-alone BladeMesher software for generating finite element models of large wind turbine blades. The software reads in the material data and airfoil data of the wind turbine blade, and automatically constructs the geometry and finite element mesh for the blade. In a next step, the nodal and element information of the finite element mesh is written out to an input file for a commercial finite element solver (Abaqus in this case).