Research Assistant/ Research Associate (fixed Term)

The Department of Mechanical Engineering is looking for a Research Assistant/Associate to help develop a manufacturing process for novel 3D tailored discontinuous fibre preforms for a sustainable future in composites as part of a new EPSRC supported research grant to Dr HaNa Yu at the University of Bath.

This is a fixed-term, full time role for an expected duration of 2 years starting from June 2023.

About the role

The successful applicant will be required to carry out most technical steps of the machine development as part of a new EPRSC funded research project on the sustainable composite manufacturing process. This project aims to truly replace continuous fibre composites with discontinuous fibre composites in engineering applications and thereby provide a sustainable future in composite manufacturing. While discontinuous fibre composites typically have inferior material-level properties to continuous fibre composites, this is viable by optimally orienting the short fibres within highly aligned discontinuous fibre composites to achieve superior structural-level performance of final products. The key technical challenge is how to maximise the advantage of the short fibre reinforcements by enabling localised orientation control in preforms production. You will therefore work on developing a novel discontinuous fibre preform manufacturing machine that can produce preforms with customised and controllable 3D fibre architectures.

This role will suit you if you

• hold PhD degree, or an equivalent professional qualification, in subject area of the direct relevance for the project (Research Associate applicants)
• have previous experience of one or more of the following: Machine/System design, System control, Composite materials, Composite testing including X-ray CT scanning,
• are self-motivated and possess excellent communication skills

Further Information

For an informal discussion about the role please contact Dr HaNa Yu; H.Yu@bath.ac.uk.

We are one of the leading Mechanical Engineering Departments in the UK, and provide a progressive academic environment. 89% of our research was graded as either world-leading or internationally excellent in the Research Excellence Framework 2014. In addition, our Department holds the Athena SWAN silver award for our commitment to advancing gender equality. We particularly encourage applications from under-represented groups. You will benefit from the supportive, collaborative and well-organised Department and Faculty system at the University.

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