Research Associate Digital Validation of Engineered Porous Structures

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Job title Research Associate in the Digital Validation of Engineered Porous structures Job reference REQ
260648 Date posted 07/09/2026 Final date to receive applications 11/10/2026 Location Loughborough Package Specialist and Supporting Academic Research grade 6 from £35,608 to £43,482 per annum. Job description

Wolfson School of Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering

Full Time, Fixed term for 12 months initially, extendable to 24 months pending funding review

Loughborough University is committed to allowing its employees to work dynamically with a combination of working on campus and remotely, where possible

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We're on the lookout for an individual to support a project that involves the functional modelling of porous structures and foams that have been manufactured using Advanced Manufacturing techniques using metallic, ceramic, polymeric materials or composites. This modelling will inform design decisions for the optimisation of subsequent iterations in the design, manufacture and post-treatment. Functional modelling is the in silico testing (i.e. digital validation) for the assessment of mechanical performance, fluid mechanics properties (e.g., permeability) and chemical reactions, necessary to accelerate the innovation cycle and reduce wastage.

The work will include simulation, validation and verification of products and processes, exploring the concepts of ‘Smart testing’ via in-silico approaches confirmed by ex-silico/experimental results; design of experiments, data harvesting, collation, analysis and interpretation to derive insight and guide engineering design; communicating research results and outputs to a scientific audience as well as the general public.

• Experience of deriving experimental designs and protocols in a simulation environment; formal requirements capture
• Experience of performing simulations that include mechanical behaviours (incl. fatigue) and flow (i.e. CFD).
• Experience handling 3D volumetric reconstructions and software for analysis
• Experience with COMSOL Multiphysics or similar simulators/software
• Excellent communication and…