PHD STUDENT POSITION IN ULTRASONICS NONDESTRUCTIVE EVALUATION

PHD STUDENT POSITION IN ULTRASONICS NONDESTRUCTIVE EVALUATION AT the Georgia Institute of Technology, Campus Georgia Tech Lorraine in Metz, France.

Starting date: Spring 2016. Duration: 3 years with extension possible. Student needs to be in the possession of a Master’s Degree in Engineering. Student will be enrolled as a regular Georgia Tech PhD student therefore needs to pass TOEFL and GRE exams and apply through the graduate program of the George Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech Atlanta. More details will be provided upon request by the student.
Applicants must submit their credentials and short letter of motivation to Nico Declercq by email.

Laboratory : Nico F. Declercq, laboratory for ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation.

Contact: Nico.Declercq@me.gatech.edu

SUBJECT: Acoustic Microscopy to investigate complex features of novel materials

CONTEXT: Acoustic microscopy is the use of very high frequency acoustic waves (1 GHz or more) to investigate materials and structures at the micron and nanoscale. Traditionally this was done at frequencies lower than what our laboratory can achieve and for relatively convenient layered materials having a flat shape. Here we will use the newest generation acoustic microscope, new in France and one of the first in the world. The technique will be tested and applied beyond the traditional limits; this will include cylindrical materials, periodic structures and other 3 dimensional structures. Because the involved phenomena are complicated and require a thorough understanding of the physics occurring for such complex scattering phenomena, the experiments will be done at different scales. For large scales we will use lower frequencies and a large ultrasound scanner. Step by step we will downsize the studied objects to almost the nanoscale while increasing the frequency from 1 MHz to 2 GHz. Not only will this research contribute to the fundamental understanding of the interaction of ultrasound with complex materials, it will result in knowledge that may be applied in related research fields such as nondestructive testing of steel structures and optoelectronic components in top-notch technology. In this proposal images are shown that have already been obtained in our lab. The preliminary results show that the research is possible and that interesting results are to be expected.