[Net salary (after taxes) starting from 2600 EUR/month]

UGent-MMS is part of a European project on next generation propellers for underwater drones. Such underwater drones are becoming more and more important in mine counter measure applications and surveillance tasks. They are sent out by the mother ship and can sweep mines or inspect critical maritime infrastructure. In this project, the propellers will be made of composite materials, and should sustain all mechanical loads in-service. The consortium consists of a large group of European defense companies and research institutes.
The research tasks at UGent-MMS involve several aspects: (i) design and finite element simulation of different propeller geometries and material configurations, (ii) optimization of material choices and manufacturing processes, (iii) mechanical characterization of the built propellers.

The PhD researcher will interact with the different partners in the European project, in particular also ...