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Twee PhD’s gezocht voor Future proof tunnels

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Het Centrum Ondergronds Bouwen (COB) en de TU Delft hebben vanaf 2025 weer plek voor twee nieuwe PhD’ers in het onderzoeksprogramma Future proof tunnels. Eerder gingen al drie PhD’ers aan de slag voor dit onderzoeksprogramma. Lees hieronder de vacatures en de oproep in het Engels. 

Seeking PhDs to realize Futureproof tunnels

Tunnels are an essential part of our infrastructure and of great economic and social value. They ensure optimal transportation, efficient use of space, and improve our quality of life. However, many tunnels are quite old or are no longer in good condition. There are efforts for major renovations and replacements which will cost a lot of money in the coming years. Additionally, these activities have high indirect costs due to tunnel closures. Tunnel owners are faced with the challenge of carrying out renovations as smartly and as quickly as possible. It is important to carry out necessary work with the shortest possible outages, and to perform them in a futureproof manner, where long term solutions are realized.

To achieve this, fundamental knowledge about the behaviour of tunnels over time, their aging process, and their individual components need to be further studied and enhanced, because of current gaps in our knowledge.

To obtain this fundamental knowledge, TU Delft and the COB (Center for Underground Construction) work together in the Futureproof Tunnels research programme. The programme is an overarching research effort to significantly advance knowledge about deformation and degradation of immersed tunnels. In 2023, the first 3 subprojects started, focusing on monitoring deformation and degradation of immersed tunnels. In the follow-up program, COB-FPT2, 2 additional PhD positions will be available from the beginning of 2025.

These subprojects focus on the following questions:

Subproject 1: Immersion and dilation (cast) joints

How are the deformation and residual service life of immersion and cast joints (with collar construction) influenced by interactions with the external soil?

Subproject 2: Tunnel-ground-surrounding interaction, a 3D interaction model

How can all tunnel-ground-surrounding interactions be captured in a workable 3D model?

Subproject 1.

Immersed tunnels are made by immersing tunnel elements made up of segments and connecting them underwater. These connections are joints, also referred to as immersion and dilation (cast) joints. This research focuses on gaining new insights into the deformation of these joints, a critical component of immersed tunnels. A specific research target is how cast joints with a so-called collar construction behave under deformations, what the influence of variations in the subsoil is on the tunnel foundation, and how this affects the reliability of tunnel construction. Another aspect is how sand that is packed together in joint openings of immersion joints affects the seasonal deformation of the tunnel and how this can be modelled.

Subproject 2

The project ‘Tunnel-ground-surroundings interaction, a 3D interaction model’ aims to develop a 3D model that provides insight into all interactions between the environment, the tunnel and the tunnel components, in order to accurately estimate the reliability and remaining life of existing immersed tunnels.

Knowledge is being gained and monitoring data is being recorded in 3 PhD research projects which began in 2023. This knowledge and monitoring data on deformation and degradation form the basis for this sub-project. The existing safety philosophy with partial factors is inadequate to obtain a sufficiently accurate estimate of the forces which act on the structure and the interaction with the environment. That is why a model is being developed in which strength and loads of the environment (ground) are fully included.

Profile

  • We are looking for: PhD candidates for subproject 1 and 2
  • Education requirement: Master degree
  • Job type: PhD position, parttime or fulltime
  • Your experience and profile:
    • A completed Master in civil engineering or related sciences.
    • Interest in topics related to tunneling
    • Training in qualitative research methods and a willingness to develop additional methodological expertise.
    • Good research skills, as demonstrated by your MSc thesis or other publications/assignments.
    • Excellent command of English, with mastery of other EU languages being an asset;
    • The ability to work both independently and as part of a team.

Applications

Please send your application before 7 January 2025 to one of the contacts below.

For more information about the Futureproof Tunnels research and the possibilities to carry out one of these PhD projects (possibly part-time), please contact the COB,
Bart Duijvestijn: bart.duijvestijn@cob.nl or TU Delft, Wout Broere: w.broere@tudelft.nl.