Dear colleagues,
we would be very grateful if you would advertise the PhD opportunity copied below to suitable students. It is fully funded as part of a Discovery Project of the Australian Research Council.
Many thanks and best wishes,
David Boutelier, Ali Karrech, Klaus Regenauer-Lieb and Christoph Schrank
Finite Strain with large rotations: A new hybrid numerical/experimental approach
Principal Supervisor: Christoph Schrank ([log in to unmask])
Summary: The project at QUT (Brisbane, QLD) is in collaboration with The University of Newcastle (Newcastle, NSW), UNSW (Sydney, NSW), and UWA (Perth, WA). We are looking for a highly motivated student with a background in quantitative structural geology, computational mechanics and/or applied mathematics.
Deformation up to large strains and rotations is important in rocks, metals, polymers, and biomaterials. Computational mechanics is a standard tool for modelling such deformations. However, in Earth Sciences, mechanical theories use small-strain formulations or large-strain approaches with classical stress rates. Classical stress rates and small-strain theories can incur incorrect stored energies. We have solved this problem with a new large-strain theory tailored to rocks. We propose to test the new theory experimentally, and to apply it to a pivotal geological problem: shear zone formation. The successful student will analyse the importance of the additional stored energy contribution to various geological deformation problems associated with faulting. She/he should conduct both physical and numerical experiments to large strains and compare the results to natural data.
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