Technische Universiteit Eindhoven Department of Mechanical Engineering
Job description
Bore hole instability is one of the crucial problems in petroleum engineering. The critical event of this phenomenon is the failure of shales in deviated bore holes and is often triggered by swelling and fracturing of shale when in contact with the drilling mud. Damage of the instability in deviated boreholes to the petroleum industry is evaluated to more than 1 billion dollar per year.
Numerical simulations can be of assistance to further the understanding of this phenomenon. Shale can be considered as a fluid-saturated porous material. Recently, a two-dimensional finite element model has been developed using the partition of unity concept to capture the discrete nature of crack propagation in such a material. Since fracture of bore holes cannot be studied sufficiently with a two-dimensional model, this project aims at extending the model to three dimensions using a level set technique. Special attention is paid to the precise tracking of the crack front. In addition, new propagation criteria must be developed in order to capture the different propagation modes.
The obtained model can be applied to a variety of other problems, both in the field of petroleum engineering as well as biomedical engineering, e.g. to model fracture in soft-tissue like intervertebral discs.
This project is funded by the STW programme "Multiscale Simulation Techniques (MuST)".
Requirements
Required education/skills:University Graduate
We are seeking a candidate interested in advanced finite element techniques. The candidate should be recently graduated from a MSc. program in mechanical engineering, civil engineering, applied mathematics, biomedical engineering or a related field, with;
- Knowledge and experience in computational mechanics and/or mathematics,
- Experience in computational geometry,
- Affinity for multidisciplinary research, engineering science,
- Experience with finite element programming,
- Capacity to write and communicate fluently in English.
Job type: Research / Advising
Workfield(s):
- Research trainees, non-tenured lecturers, researchers
Organization
Technische Universiteit Eindhoven
Department of Mechanical Engineering
The Department of Mechanical Engineering considers as the core of their activities design, realization and analysis of new products, processes and materials. Besides the basis of (solid and fluid) mechanics, materials, control and thermodynamics, parts of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing science are important supporting tools. The field is explored by a combination of modeling using fundamental concepts and applied engineering and technology. Automotive Engineering Science and Micro- amp; Nano-Scale Engineering are important departemental themes. The Mechanical Engineering Department comprises about 1000 students and 250 staff members.
Conditions of employmentEstimated maximum salary per month: eur 2000 - 2500
Employment basis: Temporary for specified period
Duration of the contract: 4 years
Maximum hours per week: 40
Additional Information
Additional information about the vacancy can be obtained from:
dr.ir. J. Remmers
Telephone number: 31(0)402472710
Or dr.ir. J. Huyghe
Telephone number: 31(0)402473137
E-mail address: j.m.r.huyghe@tue.nl
Or additional information can be obtained through one of the following links:Application
You can apply for this job before 01-06-2008 (dd-mm-yyyy) by sending your application to:
Technische Universiteit Eindhoven
WH 1.126
Dr. ir. J.J.C. Remmers
Postbus 513
5600 MB Eindhoven
Nederland
E-mail: j.j.c.remmers@tue.nl
When applying for this job always mention the vacancy number V35.398.
