PhD Candidate in Structural and Timber Engineering

NTNU is a broad-based university with a technical-scientific profile and a focus in professional education. The university is located in three cities with headquarters in Trondheim.

At NTNU, 9,000 employees and 42,000 students work to create knowledge for a better world.

You will find more information about working at NTNU and the application process here.

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Centre for Green Shift in the Built Environment (GREEN 2050 ) is a newly established center at NTNUs Faculty of Engineering. The center aims to be an arena of networking and collaboration between academia and the industry. A hub for accelerating existing, planned, and new projects. The goal is to transition into a carbon neutral built environment within 2050. GREEN 2050 will provide research of excellence and educate candidates with high digital- and sustainability competence ready to take on the green shift.

Resource efficiency is one of the major focus of the center. At least seven PhD positions are funded to project LIFELINE-2050: Optimal Utilization of Resources towards Neutral Climate Built Environments in Europe by 2030-2050 under the umbrella of GREEN-2050. The aim of LIFELINE-2050 is to optimizing the utilization of our limited resources (i.e., materials, water, energy, ICT, spaces, and humans) in synergetic way during the life cycle (i.e., the design, construction, operation, and demolish phases) of built environments in the line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): 3 (Healthy lives and well-being), 11 (Sustainable cities and communities), 12 (Responsible consumption and production), and 17 (Partnerships for the goals).

The main objective of the project LIFELINE-2050 is to develop a holistic assessment framework, digital optimization toolbox (including number of sub-digital twins), and education-innovation hub for achieving resource-effective built environments (e.g., university campuses, district areas) where complex resource-intensive sociotechnical systems need to be holistically optimized. The PhDs in LIFELINE-2050 will work together as a multidisciplinary team across six departments at the Faculty of Engineering at NTNU addressing various type of resources including material, water, spaces, energy, ICT, as well as human. Where, each PhD is expected to focus on a one or two resources and collaborate with the other candidates for developing a holistic framework, a digital toolbox, and an education hub, aiming at optimizing the utilization of resources in built environments

We have a vacancy for a PhD Candidate within the timber structures’ group at the Department of Structural Engineering . The timber structures group at NTNU has a great development over the last years. The research interests of the group are focused on the development of structural concepts for mid-rise timber buildings and timber bridges with long spans, development of high-performance connections based on threaded rods, dynamic testing of timber components and investigation of fracture and high-cycle fatigue. The research methods are based on both small-scale and full-scale experimental testing and on Finite Element Modelling.

Wood is a renewable and environmentally friendly structural material due to its negative carbon footprint and low processing energy. The demand for timber buildings (especially multi-storey) is expected to be high in the near future, due to the increasing rate of urbanization and the environmental friendliness of wood. However, a step further towards an even more climate-neutral, and resource-efficient construction is the re-use of structural components in construction. The prolongation of the service life of buildings or structural components will eventually result in smaller emissions, energy, and resource demands.

The scope of this PhD project is to develop and investigate structural concepts for resource-efficient timber buildings which are designed for re-usability, taking into account a holistic, multidisciplinary framework. The PhD project is part of the  LIFELINE-2050 project.

Emphasis will be given in the connections which are -arguably- the most critical elements for the design of timber structures and components that can be re-used. Connections are critical elements both in the Serviceability and the Ultimate Limit States and their strength and stiffness properties are governing the response of timber buildings. Therefore, the design concepts for re-usability should rely on performant timber connections. Last but not least, to achieve the highest possible degree of resource efficiency in buildings cooperation and synergies with other disciplines is required.

You will report to the supervising Associate Professor. The PhD project aims to start in August 2022.