One research studentship, for students of a course that does not award an academic degree

Reference: BI 28.CPM.2022.IDMEC

The Institute of Mechanical Engineering – IDMEC is opening a call for

Research Studentships (for students of a course that does not award an academic degree)

Applications are open for 1 research studentship, for students of a course that does not award an academic degree, within the framework of project LAETA, UIDB/50022/2020, financed by national funds through FCT/MCTES, under the following conditions:

Scientific Area: Structural and Computational Mechanics

Admission Requirements:

Background knowledge I Multibody Dynamics, Finite Elements, Numerical Methods in Engineering, Dynamics of Railway Vehicles and Matlab Programming. Understanding of pantograph and Catenary modelling is a preferential condition.

Furthermore,

a) to hold a bachelor or master degree and be enrolled at a course that does not award an academic degree and it is integrated in the educational project of a higher education institution, performed in association or cooperation with one or several R&D units; or declaration of honor in which undertakes to be enrolled until the grant's contract is done.

b) not to exceed with this contract, including the possible renovations, an accumulated period of two years in this type of studentship, continuously or with interruptions.

Workplan and the objectives to achieve:

Title: : Evaluation of the performance of catenaries of railway lines.

The catenary-pantograph system is the mechanical responsible for the transmission of electrical energy from the infrastructure to the rail vehicle. The quality of the contact between the overhead contact line and the pantograph defines, on the one hand, the availability of the train to have sufficient energy for its engines and, on the other hand, the wear and tear of the mechanical elements, thus conditioning the maintenance intervals of the track.

This work intends to complement the catenary models developed for the entire spectrum of vehicle operating speeds, i.e., low speeds up to 80 km/h, intermediate speeds, i.e., 80-180 km/h and high speeds in the range 180-240 km/h of the systems implemented in the national rail network in order to improve its performance and allow higher vehicle operating speeds. Catenaries are considered in straight rail track or track with general geometry, i.e., with straight and curved sections, in order to guarantee realistic operating conditions.

The work program is divided into the following steps: (1) Study of catenary structures for tracks with different operating speed ranges and identification of the system(s) that will be studied in this work; (2) Dynamic analysis of the catenary pantograph system with existing computer programs, namely with the PantoCat program in order to ensure all means of developing the optimization program; (3) Identification of the sensitivity of the catenary performance to the relevant parameters for the qualification of the quality of the pantograph-catenary contact; (4) Development of a Design of Experiments strategy in order to support simplified models representing the system (5) Systematization of results in order to answer the questions: What modifications in the assembly and tuning of existing catenaries allow to increase their exploration speed; What are the limits on the performance of train pantographs that allow them to use the potential of existing overhead contact lines in terms of their operating speed?

Legislation and Regulations: Statute of Scientific Research Fellow, approved by Law nr. 40/2004, of August 18, as worded by Decree-Law nr. 123/2019, of August 28; FCT Regulation for Research Studentships and Fellowships, available on

https://www.fct.pt/apoios/bolsas/regulamento.phtml.pt

Workplace: The work will be developed at IDMEC - Institute of Mechanical Engineering, being both the Host and Contracting Entity, and under the scientific supervision of Prof. Jorge Ambrósio

Duration: The research fellowship(s) will have the duration of 6 months. It’s expected to begin in October 2022 and will not be renewed.

Monthly maintenance allowance: According to the values for Research Fellowships awarded by FCT in Portugal (http://www.fct.pt/apoios/bolsas/valores ), the amount of the monthly maintenance allowance is € 1.144,64€, being the payment method by Wire Transfer.

Selection methods: The selection methods will be the following: 1. Curriculum evaluation, 2. Presential individual interview, with the weight of 50% for each evaluation method.

Composition of the selection Jury: Profª Virginia Infante, Prof. António Andrade, Prof. Jorge Ambrósio (Júri’s President)

Announcement/ notification of the results: The final evaluation results will communicated to all applicants by email.

After be notified, candidates have 10 working days to submit a formal rebuttal, by email.

A selection reserve list will be drawn up that can be used until 14th October 2022

Application deadline and formalization: The call is open in the period between September 19 and September 30, until 18:00, 2022.

Research Studentships

It is mandatory to formalize applications with the submission of the following documents: Curriculum Vitae; academic degree certificate, where applicable; proof of enrollment at a course that does not award an academic degree; motivation letter; declaration on honour that the applicant does not exceed with this contract an accumulated period of two years in this type of studentship, continuously or with interruptions.

Applications must be submitted to the email: [email protected]

The contract draft and final report draf are available on https://www.idmec.tecnico.ulisboa.pt/about/job-openings/