Mechatronic Inverse Characterization of Materials under Multi-Field Conditions
This grant seeks to automate material characterization under combined conditions (like heat & stress) using robots and advanced modeling, for materials in extreme environments.
This grant is no longer accepting proposals
NRC Research Associateship Programs has archived this opportunity.
Funder: NRC Research Associateship Programs
Due Dates: May 1, 2025 | August 1, 2025 | November 1, 2025 | February 1, 2026
Funding Amounts: $99,200 stipend plus $3,000 travel allowance; relocation assistance available for eligible awardees; typical tenure 2-3 years.
Summary: Postdoctoral fellowship to conduct automated inverse characterization of materials under multifield loading conditions at the Naval Research Laboratory.
Key Information: Open to U.S. citizens and permanent residents with a Ph.D. earned within the last 5 years; requires contacting a research adviser prior to application.
Description
This postdoctoral research opportunity at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) focuses on advancing automated inverse characterization of materials subjected to multi-field conditions such as mechanical stress combined with temperature, humidity, or electromagnetic fields. The project leverages recent advances in computational and analytical modeling of continuum material behavior and the reduced cost of custom mechatronic/robotic systems to program multidimensional loading paths. These paths generate stimulus-response data sets that capture the constitutive response of composite or homogeneous, anisotropic or isotropic materials, including those used in extreme environments like supersonic and hypersonic platform skins and propulsion systems.
Research includes developing and applying inverse methodologies for material characterization under multifield generalized loading, exploring multiphysics failure theories, uncertainty quantification and propagation from experimental data to model parameters, and employing full-field measurement techniques.
Key topics include constitutive response modeling, mechatronic automation, robotic and multiaxial testing, multidimensional loading, and multifield excitation.
