Marie Curie Early Stage Researcher, ESR 2, ICONIC: Improving the crashworthiness of composite transportation structures

SALARY: €37,903 p.a. (plus family allowance of €4,589 p.a. where appropriate in accordance with Marie Skłodowska-Curie programme rules).

OVERALL PURPOSE OF THE JOB:
- To undertake research project ESR 2 (see description below), offered at the University of Limerick, leading to the award of a PhD. This project forms part of a Marie Sklodowska-Curie European Training Network (ICONIC - Improving the crashworthiness of composite transportation structures).
- To participate in training programmes, workshops, summer schools and conferences. To complement the training programme through secondments with other consortium members and disseminate research outcomes through conference presentations, journal papers and other means as appropriate.

DESCRIPTION:
The ICONIC network consists of nine beneficiaries spread across six countries. It is led by the Queens University of Belfast, and partners include the University of Limerick, Bombardier, Centro Richerche Fiat, the DLR, Swerea SICOMP AB, Dassault Systemes UK, Augusta Westland, and Salamander Amphibious Vehicles. ICONIC will appoint a total of fifteen Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) who will each pursue a three-year PhD programme in an innovative, multidisciplinary and inter-sectoral, structured research and training programme. These ESRs will acquire the skills to enable the sustainable and economically-viable design of a new generation of highly-efficient, lightweight transportation composite structures that will provide the maximum protection to occupants and pedestrians, through superior crashworthiness. All ESRs will spend up to three months on secondment at other participating member organisations and will be expected to attend a series of workshops, training courses, and summer schools, and present at the international ICONIC conference towards the end of the research programme.

Two ESRs are based at the University of Limerick: ESR 2 described below, and ESR 1, which has been filled.

ESR 2: Development of discrete fastener-less joining technologies for impact protection devices
This project aims to develop a novel interlocking and fastener-less joining technology for composite-to-metal joining, and optimise the interlock design for maximum energy absorption. The use of both composites and metals in transportation structures is ubiquitous, and these dissimilar materials are typically joined using mechanical fasteners when high loading needs to be transferred. This project builds upon the research strengths at the University of Limerick in the design and analysis of mechanically- fastened composite joints and will lead to a novel fastener-less interlocking joint designs for composite-to-metal joints. New fully reversible adhesives, that can be reverse-activated by high frequency electromagnetic waves, will be utilised to bond and seal these interlocked surfaces. An optimisation exercise will be undertaken to optimise these joints for energy absorption