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Corrosion Studies for Energy Infrastructure Sensing - Postdoctoral Researcher

Through the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), this posting seeks a postdoctoral researcher to engage in projects with the Research Innovation Center (RIC) researchers at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), under the mentorship of Ruishu Wright. NETL is a multi-disciplinary, scientific and technical-oriented national laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy’s primary lab supporting fossil fuel-based and carbon management research.

An opportunity exists to join an interdisciplinary team developing new sensor technologies applied to energy infrastructure sensing applications, with an emphasis on natural gas infrastructure at NETL. The post-doctoral research associate will collaborate on an interdisciplinary team spanning industry, academic, and national laboratory partners that seeks to develop and demonstrate advanced sensors and enabling technologies for energy infrastructure monitoring applications. An emphasis will be placed on corrosion simulation and experimental studies and related methods for predictive monitoring of incipient failures within the natural gas infrastructure in combination with AI-enhanced sensor network.

The research associate will gain knowledge and experience in development and integration of corrosion studies from simulation and experiments to intelligent sensor network for corrosion monitoring and prediction.

An ideal candidate would be capable of researching within the team to develop physics-based corrosion and material degradation models for understanding failures of natural gas infrastructure, apply experimental corrosion studies to validate the corrosion simulation model, and predict the structural health and service life based on the sensor data. 
The ideal candidate would have some, but not necessarily all, of the following:
  1. Knowledge of corrosion mechanisms, multi-physics and finite element modeling for corrosion and pipeline failures.
  2. Experience in developing corrosion models for infrastructure corrosion such as internal pipeline corrosion, hydrogen embrittlement, and stress corrosion cracking. Experience in using commercial corrosion simulation tools and software packages.
  3. Knowledge of electrochemical corrosion and solid-electrolyte interaction.
  4. Hands-on experience in corrosion measurements: mass loss, electrochemical methods such as potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and materials characterization such as SEM, XRD, TGA, FTIR, XPS, etc.
  5. Experience in high-pressure high-temperature corrosion is a plus.
  6. An interest in intelligent techniques for energy infrastructure monitoring and sensing.
  7. Excellent communication skills and a willingness and interest to collaborate in an interdisciplinary team environment to drive towards research objectives is also highly desired.
  8. An advanced degree (PhD) in Materials Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Metallurgical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Energy Engineering, Civil Engineering, Applied Physics, or a related field.

The selected research associate will receive a stipend based on their academic level and experience. The stipend rate for postdoctoral researchers starts at $64,649/year.