deadline: 4th March 2019
Qualification Type: PhD
Location: Dublin - Ireland
Funding for: UK Students, EU Students, International Students
Funding amount: €16,000
￡14,230.42 converted salary* per annum for a period of 48 months.
Hours: Full Time
The Department of Civil, Structural & Environmental Engineering, Trinity
College Dublin invite applications for a PhD Research position. The position
is funded under the Trinity College Dublin Provost PhD Award programme and
these doctoral awards are generously funded through the Universities alumni
donations and Trinity’s Commercial Revenue Unit.
The Project
The project will include the development of diagnostic tools based on
vibration analysis. Vibration in hydraulic machines will be detected using
sensors placed on the machine by means of smart, low-cost affordable
hardware. Supporting software solutions to analyse and interpret the data
will also be developed.
The water industry is the 4th most energy intensive sector in the EU, and is
responsible for considerable contributions to CO2 emissions. Pumping of
water is the most energy intensive activity within water supply. In addition
many opportunities exist for the installation of hydropower turbines in water
pipelines to reduce net demand. Significant efforts have been made in recent
years to improve the efficiency of these hydraulic machines (pumps and
turbines). However hydraulic machines require regular maintenance, and
maintenance problems are known to greatly reduce efficiency, with consequent
environmental impacts.
The global market for hydraulic machinery corresponds to €10.7 billion for
pumps and €2.4 billion for turbines, illustrating the scale of these
activities. This project aims to develop and test an innovative suite of
sensor technology for the predictive maintenance of hydraulic machines, using
an Internet Of Things (IOT) approach.
The data collected from the sensor suite will be transmitted through
low-power wide-area networks and analysed in real-time to detect the onset of
machinery faults. This will enable early detection of faults to allow the
required repairs to be complete in advance of catastrophic failures,
reduction in power output (turbines), or increases in power consumption
(pumps).
The selected Ph.D. candidate will develop a comprehensive suite of low-cost
sensors to monitor the condition of pumps and turbines in various states of
repair. This project will build on previous TCD projects (www.hydro-bpt.eu,
www.redawn.eu and www.dwr-uisce.eu).
The applicant & funding
In addition to the main research work, the successful applicant will also be
expected to contribute to the production of project reports and scientific
papers on the topic. Applicants with a masters or bachelors degree in areas
of Engineering or Science relating to one or more of the core areas of the
project will be considered.
Applicants with a 1st class honours degree or equivalent are strongly
encouraged. Funding for the research project, commencing in September 1st
2019, will be €16,000 per annum for a period of 48 months. In addition the
funding will cover full EU or Non-EU university fees.
Candidates are asked to send a cover letter, full CV and the names of two
referees to the address below. Closing date March 4th 2019.
Dr Aonghus McNabola
Head of Department,
Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering,
Trinity College Dublin,
Ireland
Email: [email protected]
Telephone +353-1-8963837
Web: people.tcd.ie/amcnabo