Postdoctoral Fellow; PREP

General Description

PREP Research Associate

This position is part of the National Institute of Standards (NIST) Professional Research Experience (PREP) program. NIST recognizes that its research staff may wish to collaborate with researchers at academic institutions on specific projects of mutual interest and thus requires that such institutions be the recipient of a PREP award. The PREP program requires staff from a wide range of backgrounds to work on scientific research in many areas.

Employees in this position will perform technical work that underpins the scientific research of the collaboration.

Research

Title:

Developing a standard reference phase change material in support of the thermal insulation industry

The work will entail:
Commercial phase change materials (PCMs) in the US and EU markets are incorporated in macro- and micro-encapsulations for latent heat storage in building energy applications. The thermal conductivity and the specific heat capacity of these PCM products, which are usually reported in the specification's datasheet and are measured by a Heat Flow Meter (HFM), are the main thermal data used for installation guidance and energy saving calculations.

However, these measurements exhibit non-linear behaviors with temperature due to contributions from the encapsulation materials and other factors. Therefore, the thermal behavior of encapsulated PCMs masks the thermal properties of the actual PCM and its phase change properties. Furthermore, the measurement by an HFM is fundamentally a relative measurement being heavily correlated with the calibration of internal heat flux transducers using a reference material.

This work aims to establish the groundwork needed to develop a reference material for validating the specific heat capacity values, as well as thermal conductivity of macro-encapsulated PCMs. The research focus is to ultimately provide a new measurement service by developing a PCM reference material with reliable thermal properties and a well-defined phase-temperature relationship.

US Citizen Preferred

• Simulating thermal distributions on empty and PCM filled - encapsulation panels between heating and cooling sources.
• Determining thermal conductivity and heat capacity values of the PCM encapsulation panels using computational methods.
• Analyzing PCM melting and solidification process in the encapsulations using computational methods.
• Presenting results at internal meetings, and occasional meetings with external stakeholders.
• Ensuring that results, protocols, software, and documentation have been archived.

• A minimum master's degree in computer science, Engineering, Manufacturing, or a related field.
• A minimum of 2 years of relevant experience is preferred.
• Familiarity with PCM and thermal simulations is a big plus.
• Ability to work with a commercial finite element software (experience with COMSOL is preferred but not required).
• Ability to develop an analytical model needed to analyze data.
• Strong oral and written communication skills.

The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) hosts the Professional Research Experience Program (PREP) which is designed to provide valuable laboratory experience and financial assistance to undergraduates, post-bachelor's degree holders, graduate students, master's degree holders, postdocs, and faculty.

PREP is a 5-year cooperative agreement between NIST laboratories and participating PREP Universities to establish a collaborative research relationship between NIST and U.S. institutions of higher education in the following disciplines including (but may not be limited to) biochemistry, biological sciences, chemistry, computer science, engineering, electronics, materials science, mathematics, nanoscale science, neutron science, physical science, physics, and statistics.

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