Dr A Forster
No more applications being accepted
Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
About the Project
Climate change is presenting significant challenges to the built and natural environment. Within the non-arid world this is generally manifesting itself in the form of increasing volume and intensity of rainfall. Tangibly this results in external building envelopes being wetter for longer, or in severe cases being submerged in water as a result of flooding.
Scottish architecture, and its wall construction is ostensibly characterised as being built of stone adopting lime mortars. These porous building materials have been shown to exhibit great resilience and durability under normal weathering conditions and have performed well for centuries. Longevity is therefore correlated with environment, materials and built form.
The economic impact of increasingly wet conditions, is difficult to objectively quantify but it is well understood that the hostile climatic conditions encountered are reflected in accelerated materials failure and increasingly problematic building performance (such as increased thermal inefficiency and dampness associated with deleterious factors to human health).
Fundamental to progressive risk analysis for the traditional built environment is the determination of topographical and geographical exposure overlaid by climate change predictive data that is also geographically contextualise (see UKCIP – climate change predictions). This data provides a robust mechanism to form the basis of environmental assessment, but less understood is the effects of moisture related defects on the physical performance of porous building materials, most notably freeze thaw and increasing biological activity.
This project aims to evaluate the performance of selective commonly confronted porous building materials that constitute much of the Scotland’s building stock (see sandstones and lime mortars) and test them under predicted moisture loads that will be noted in several geographical regions determined by UK CIP data. This accelerated testing will enable better predictions to be established between changing environment, and materials service life predications (SLP) that are fundamental for the maintenance and repair forecasting.
Informal enquiries should be directed to the primary supervisor, Dr Alan Forster.
Applicants should have a first-class honours degree in a relevant subject or a 2.1 honours degree plus Masters (or equivalent). Scholarships will be awarded by competitive merit, taking into account the academic ability of the applicant.
Please complete our online application form and select PhD programme Construction within the application and include the project reference, title and supervisor on your application. Applicants who do not include these details on their application may not be considered.
Please also provide a written proposal, at least one side of A4, outlining how you would approach the research project. You will also be required to upload a CV, a copy of your degree certificate and relevant transcripts and one academic reference. You must also provide proof of your ability in the English language (if English is not your mother tongue or if you have not already studied for a degree that was taught in English). We require an IELTS certificate showing an overall score of at least 6.5 with no component scoring less than 6.0 or a TOEFL certificate with a minimum score of 90 points.
Applicants MUST be available to start the course of study in October 2019.
Funding Notes
Scholarships will cover tuition fees and provide an annual stipend of approximately £14,999 for the 36 month duration of the project.