Join a team of scientists and engineers who are investigating the reliability of the structural materials that are used for machinery, buildings, and other components that underpin our nation’s infrastructure. We currently have research opportunities aimed at assessing behavior of structural materials through mechanical testing and microstructural characterization, and opportunities focused on acoustic nondestructive evaluation of existing structures. We apply fracture mechanics and materials science principles to model data, furthering the understanding of the relationships surrounding structure, properties, and reliability. We test materials on size scales ranging from sub-micron to 1+ m, and in harsh environments, including hydrogen gas, radiation, corrosives, and high stress, as well as low and high temperatures.

We support some of society’s most critical and vulnerable reliability problems, including condition assessment of our nation’s infrastructure, development of methods for storage and transport of alternative fuels and development of critical data on effects of radiation on structural materials. Our laboratory also maintains the nation’s energy scale for dynamic impact (Charpy) testing, which is critical to ensuring performance of structural steels.

Please visit our websites at https://www.nist.gov/mml/acmd/fatigue-and-fracture-group and https://www.nist.gov/programs-projects/pipeline-safety to learn more about our facilities and current research.

 

key words

Radiation; Metallurgy; Materials science; NDE; Modeling; Fracture; Fatigue; Corrosion; Mechanical testing; Ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation; Structural health monitoring; Pipelines

Citizenship:  Open to U.S. citizens

Level:  Open to Postdoctoral applicants