EngD position on “Design of a digital framework for upscaled particle calibration with powder characterization techniques”

The project

The project aims at 1) creating a digital twin of industrial powders in laboratory characterization testers via discrete element models (DEM), with a rotational rheometer taken as reference; 2) designing a digital platform to calibrate the particle/contact DEM parameters; 3) establishing and applying a rigorous calibration procedure to different powders -- with open-source codes and open science towards a new experimental data-base.

The procedure will be tuneable on the contact model chosen to describe the particle interactions, e.g., friction, van der Waals, capillary or electrostatic models. Moreover, as result of the digital calibration framework, it will be possible to easily change the geometry of the impeller and the rotational speed to modify the dominant flow regime. The high operating flexibility of the rheometers, together with the remarkable precision of the quantitative measurements of torque and forces parallel to the rotation axis, make it possible to collect experimental data corresponding to different flow regimes that can be used to calibrate the DEM model. In the experiments a limited number of material properties will be varied, such as the particle size, the particle material, the amount of liquid available for capillary bridges.

Experiments will be in collaboration within the network, and are not necessarily limited to powder rheology, but other tests, such as uniaxial compaction, shear test at high temperature or controlled humidity and powder vibration, will be available to be used to complete the characterization of the particle system or to validate the calibrated model.The project includes an academic secondment period of 4-6 months in the Powder Technology group at the University of Salerno (IT), under the supervision of Dr. Diego Barletta to learn experimental methods, to perform element tests experiments as well as an industrial secondment at MercuryLab (NL) to learn the numerics and work on the digital twin framework design.

This project is part of the EU funded Marie Curie Initial Training Network TUSAIL- Training in Upscaling particle Systems: Advancing Industry across Length-scales (www.tusail.eu). The overarching objective of TUSAIL is to develop, apply and validate three novel modelling methodologies in the upscaling of industrial particulate processes. TUSAIL will train a cohort of researchers within a collaborative multidisciplinary and inter-sectorial network involving 6 university partners and 5 major industries across Europe.

This fellowship is offered in the context of a Marie Curie Initial Training Network and transnational mobility is a key element of eligibility. Therefore, your eligibility for the post is determined by Marie Curie terms and conditions. Researchers may be either EU citizens or from outside the EU (subject to relevant immigration formalities), but applications will only be accepted from candidates who must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc) in Netherlands for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the date of selection by the host institution (short stays such as holidays are not taken into account). This mobility rule applies only to your first recruitment within the project, and not to other organizations to which you might be sent on secondment or at which you may subsequently also be recruited.

All researchers recruited in a Marie Sklodowska-Curie ITN must be Early-Stage Researchers (ESRs). A ESR shall, at the time of recruitment by the host organisation, be in the first four years of their research careers and not yet have been awarded a doctoral degree. The four years start to count from the date when a researcher obtained the degree which would formally entitle him/her to embark on a doctorate.

The position is subjected to the expected approval of an amendment of the TUSAIL grant agreement via the interested parts.