Applications are invited for PhD positions in the theory and modelling of complex materials.

We are all familiar with corrosion and its significant economic and environmental consequences. The current cost to industry is estimated to be over $2 trillion per annum [1]. Current theories of corrosion are in large part based on the phenomenology of average behaviour and predict, more or less successfully, average corrosion rates for widely used metallurgies. This is often insufficient to allow us to generate new strategies for detecting, controlling and ultimately preventing corrosion especially in extreme environments. Recent advances in multi-scale modelling and in the in situ measurement of atomic scale processes in corrosion layers suggests that it may well be possible to generate a new predictive model of corrosion scale formation that addresses behaviour at macroscopic length and time scales but is rigorously based on a new understanding of atomic scale processes.

Applications are invited for fully funded 4-year studentships in the combined quantum, atomistic and continuum modelling of the nucleation, growth and degradation of corrosion scales in the Computational Materials Science Group at Imperial College London (http://www.imperial.ac.uk/computational-materials-science).

The project involves the development of a continuum model to describe ionic and charge transport within realistic models of granular films. The model will be used to analyse the growth and degradation of, for example, oxide, sulphide and carbonate scales that form on steel surfaces in various environments. The reaction kinetics, diffusion and charge transport processes underpinning the model will be obtained from large scale quantum mechanical calculations.

This work will be conducted as part of a wider collaboration involving the Universities of Leeds, Edinburgh, Manchester and Cambridge within which state of the art in situ measurements of microscopy and spectroscopy will be used to elucidate the composition and structure of growing scales. The long term aim is to develop strategies for the prevention, mitigation and detection of corrosion.

This PhD studentship will be part of the BP International Centre for Advanced Materials (BP-ICAM: http://www.icam-online.org) community. BP-ICAM was set up by BP in autumn 2012 with a $100 million investment over 10 years.  It brings together the strengths of four world-leading universities and BP’s expertise in oil and gas to create an international centre of excellence in advanced materials research. The academic partnership between The University of Manchester, the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, combines game-changing capabilities in structural materials, corrosion, separations, surfaces, deposits, imaging, modelling and self-healing materials.

This studentships will also be affiliated to Centre for Doctoral Training in Theory, Modelling and Simulation of Materials (http://www.imperial.ac.uk/theory-and-simulation-of-materials).

Applicants should have interest and aptitude in theory and simulation and a strong background (normally first class undergraduate degree or equivalent) in Physics, Chemistry, Materials, Engineering or Mathematics or a related subject.

The studentships will start in October 2017 and applications will be considered until the position is filled. Applicants should submit a CV, a brief statement of research interests, and the names of two referees by e-mail to Prof. Nicholas Harrison ([email protected]).

[1] Hays G. F. Now is the Time, World Corrosion Organisation (2012)