Marie Curie PhD vacancy

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The PhD research will be carried out in the Advanced Ceramics and Powder Metallurgy team at the Department of Materials Engineering of KU Leuven.

KU Leuven (University of Leuven) has been a center of learning for nearly six centuries since 1425, making it one of the oldest and most renowned universities in Europe. Today, it is Belgium’s highest ranked university (QS 2025 : 60), ranked among the top 4% universities in the world and consistently ranked in the top 10 most innovative universities in Europe. The university caters to over 60,000 students from more than 140 countries. KU Leuven's three doctoral schools provide internationally oriented PhD tracks for more than 4,000 doctoral students. KU Leuven and affiliated knowledge institutes provide fertile ground for innovation and high-tech entrepreneurship in the Leuven region. This favorable climate for knowledge-driven innovation makes the Leuven region an attractive location for many high-tech companies.

KU Leuven website: https://www.kuleuven.be/english/kuleuven/

Project

KU Leuven seeks a highly motivated PhD candidate for a fully funded, four-year international doctoral position within the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Doctoral Network (MSCA-DN) project TURBO-IMPACT (TURBOmachinery Innovative Manufacturing, Processing, Analysis, Characterization, and Topology ; Website: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101311350).

The TurboImpact project, funded by Horizon Europe – MSCA-DN, tackles challenges in designing, optimizing, selecting materials, and manufacturing small-scale turbomachinery for applications in heat pumps, fuel cells, organic Rankine cycles, or gas turbines. This project develops robust system and component design methods, an integrated manufacturing platform, and multi-material joining techniques to efficiently produce small-scale turbomachinery.

In this EU project, this PhD researcher (DC8) will focus on the complete indirect DLP/SLA additive manufacturing route for silicon nitride turbomachinery components. This involves the development of a UV-curable Si3N4 slurry, optimization of DLP/SLA printing strategies for reference parts and complex components such as impellers, and the post-printing debinding and sintering process to obtain fully dense complex near-net-shaped ceramic components. The AM parts will be microstructurally, mechanically and geometrically characterized. Simple geometries will be used for the evaluation of joining and machining performances, whereas the complex near-net-shaped components will be applied in turbomachinery.

The Doctoral Candidate Will

• Develop a UV-curable Si3N4 slurry and optimize DLP/SLA printing strategies for reference parts and complex components
• Realize post-printing debinding and sintering processes to obtain fully dense complex near-net-shaped ceramic components
• Elucidate the processing – microstructure – mechanical properties – geometrical accuracy correlations.

The project includes potential international secondments at EPFL (Switzerland), Admatec Additive Solutions (The Netherlands) and IFW (Germany).

The researcher is supervised by Prof. Jozef Vleugels (https://www.kuleuven.be/wieiswie/nl/person/00006337), head of the Functional Materials Division (FUNMAT) and coordinator of the Advanced Ceramics and Powder Metallurgy research group at the Department of Materials Engineering. The research group has a long track record (>35 years) on the powder metallurgical development, processing and characterisaton of ceramics, cermets, metcers and metals. More information on the website (https://www.mtm.kuleuven.be/english/research/siem/ACPM)

Profile

• I have a two-year master degree in Materials Science, Materials Engineering, or an equivalent master degree.
• I am proficient in written and spoken English.
• During my courses, master thesis or prior professional activities, I have gathered basic experience on the processing of ceramics, additive manufacturing, microstructural and mechanical characterization or I have a profound interest in these topics.
• I demonstrate a strong sense of initiative and responsibility, while also being an effective and collaborative team player.
• I am very motivated and obtained good grades (minimum distinction level)
• I feel comfortable to work as a team member and I am eager to share my results to inspire and be inspired by my colleagues.

Special requirements: In accordance with the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Network regulations:

• Applicants must comply with the MSCA Mobility Rule. At the time of recruitment, candidates must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the hiring Country for more than 12 months during the 36 months immediately preceding r