Reuse of prestressed concrete infrastructure

Open Fully-funded Ph.D. Position on Reuse of prestressed concrete infrastructure

University of Luxembourg

Prof. Numa Bertola

The Sustainable Concrete Structure Laboratory is looking for a new Ph.D. candidate. In this

fully-funded position, the Ph.D. candidate will work on using developing frameworks for

assessing the reuse potential of prestressed concrete structures.

As the successful candidate, you will contribute to a research project at the intersection of

engineering (concrete structures), material science (durability, mechanical behavior), data

science, and life-cycle analyses.

The aim of this Ph.D. project is to develop the first assessment method for evaluating reusing

potential of concrete infrastructures. The tasks comprise the development of a laboratory

campaign of full-scale reused prestressed concrete elements, the development of non-

destructive testing methods, and the evaluations of life-cycle gains.

This groundbreaking research output will lead to the extension of the service life of concrete

infrastructure, leading to a significant reduction of carbon emissions and costs of infrastructure

management.

This project is part of a multidisciplinary Horizon-Europe project on sustainable civil

infrastructure, with multiple public and private partners across Europe. A European

collaboration is intended with case studies or experiments in multiple countries.

University of Luxembourg is an international research university with a distinctly multilingual and interdisciplinary character. The University was founded in 2003 and counts more than 6,700 students and more than 2,000 employees from around the world. Times Higher Education ranks the University of Luxembourg #3 worldwide for its “international outlook,” #20 in the Young University Ranking 2021, and among the top 250 universities worldwide. The institution embraces inclusion and diversity as key values. We are fully committed to removing any discriminatory barrier related to gender, and not only, in recruitment and career progression of our staff.

This project calls for an open character with a strong knowledge on concrete structures as well as curiosity across discipline boundaries (civil engineering, material science, and computer science). We do not expect any single person to be an expert across all these fields, but you must be open to learning about and embracing challenges in fields you may not yet have been working with. We thus warmly encourage you to apply even if you feel that you only partially meet the criteria in terms of background and expertise, as you will have the opportunity to acquire the missing knowledge during the first year of the project.

Requirements for the post are:

• Master’s degree (or equivalent) in civil engineering (or related area).
• Good understanding of the structural behavior and material properties of concrete structures and modelling of civil structures. Knowledge of concrete durability and circular economy is a plus.
• Curiosity, a genuine passion for scientific research
• Openness to interdisciplinary research and commitment to teamwork.
• Commitment and capacity to critical thinking and good research ethics.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.