BCAM-Tekniker Joint PhD Student Position: Modelling and Simulation Hydrogen Embrittlement in Steels

BCAM - Basque Center for Applied Mathematics, Spain

Updated: over 1 year ago
Deadline: 07 Sep 2022
We are looking for a PhD student to work on the multiscale simulation of hydrogen-induced embrittlement (HE) of steels. This research will be jointly supervised by Dr. Mauricio Rincon Bonilla from the Basque Center for Applied mathematics (BCAM) and Dr. Iban Quintana from Tekniker.

HE is connected to the fast diffusion of hydrogen atoms through the solid material lattice, often by quantum mechanical tunnelling (even at room temperature) followed by interaction with crystal defects, such as vacancies, dislocations, and grain boundaries. Despite great efforts, this process is still poorly understood. Moreover, the in-silico analysis of realistic, multicomponent steel specimens remains a great computational challenge.

The student will combine micromechanical and structural characterization techniques to study the behaviour of hydrogen-charged steels prepared at Tekniker. He/she will combine these analyses with hydrogen diffusion simulations developed and performed at BCAM. With this information, we aim to propose strategies for the development of new steels, heat treatments or coatings against HE.

Modelling activities will initially focus on the atomistic scale, combining quantum mechanical methods, molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo schemes. The insights obtained from these studies will be incorporated into a multiscale framework to allow direct comparison with macroscopic experiments, as well as the parameterization of continuous phase field or finite elements models.

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