PhD Studentship in Advanced Numerical Modelling and Predictive Maintenance of Buried Infrastructure

Buried infrastructure underpins essential urban services, yet its deterioration often remains hidden until significant damage or service disruption occurs. Ageing pipelines face increasing pressures from climate change, groundwater fluctuations and nearby construction. Their integrity is closely linked to the surrounding ground. Pipe defects can initiate water leakage and internal soil erosion, leading to loss of support, subsidence and potentially sinkhole formation. Conversely, ground movement can impose addit...

Opportunity details

Buried infrastructure underpins essential urban services, yet its deterioration often remains hidden until significant damage or service disruption occurs. Ageing pipelines face increasing pressures from climate change, groundwater fluctuations and nearby construction. Their integrity is closely linked to the surrounding ground. Pipe defects can initiate water leakage and internal soil erosion, leading to loss of support, subsidence and potentially sinkhole formation. Conversely, ground movement can impose additional stresses on pipelines, accelerating damage and leakage. Understanding and predicting this dynamic, coupled deterioration process is essential for timely and effective maintenance. This PhD project will develop a hybrid physics-based and data-driven framework for assessing the condition and predicting the performance of buried infrastructure, with a focus on water pipelines and associated ground instability. The central research question is how advanced computational models and monitoring data can be combined to identify infrastructure deterioration and predict its progression towards failure. The project will innovate computational modelling techniques to simulate interactions between structure damage, water leakage, soil erosion and ground deformation. Building on these physical models, the research will investigate AI-assisted surrogate modelling and data assimilation to connect numerical predictions with monitoring observations, potentially including distributed fibre-optic strain measurements, hydraulic data and ground displacement. The anticipated outcome is a validated computational framework linking deterioration mechanisms, monitoring-informed prediction and maintenance decision-making. The project will support earlier intervention, reduced water...

Eligibility

The successful candidate will be based in the School of Engineering at the University of Birmingham, which hosts the National Buried Infrastructure Facility (NBIF, www.birmingham.ac.uk/nbif). Requirements: The successful candidate will be motivated and enthusiastic about working across disciplines to address challenges in buried infrastructure resilience. Applicants should have: A First- or Upper Second-class Honours degree, or an equivalent qualification, in civil engineering, geotechnical engineering, mechanical engineering, applied mathematics, computer science or a closely related discipline. A relevant master’s degree and/or research or industry experience would be an advantage.

Requirements

The successful candidate will be based in the School of Engineering at the University of Birmingham, which hosts the National Buried Infrastructure Facility (NBIF, www.birmingham.ac.uk/nbif). Requirements: The successful candidate will be motivated and enthusiastic about working across disciplines to address challenges in buried infrastructure resilience. Applicants should have: A First- or Upper Second-class Honours degree, or an equivalent qualification, in civil engineering, geotechnical engineering, mechanical engineering, applied mathematics, computer science or a closely related discipline. A relevant master’s degree and/or research or industry experience would be an advantage.

Funding and benefits

Funding eligibility: UK Students. Funding amount: £21,805 per annum. Funding for this project covers tuition fees (UK/home-student rate), UKRI minimum annual stipend (currently £21,805/annum) for the full duration of the 3.5-year programme. International students are welcome to apply if you are willing to cover the tuition difference between home and international rates through self-funding or external sources. Support will be provided for applications for external funding, such as Commonwealth fellowships or funding from the Schlumberger Foundation and the China Scholarship Council. Interested candidates should email Dr Ruofeng Feng at r.feng@bham.ac.uk via the above 'Apply' button using the subject line “PhD studentship + [Your name] + [Current institution] + [Current programme of study]”. Please include the names and contact details of two referees in the email. Attach the following documents:

Required documents

CV, Academic transcripts

How to apply

Your CV. A supporting statement (maximum two pages). Academic transcripts for awarded and in-progress university qualifications.

Open the official application information

Verify the deadline and final conditions on the official provider page before submitting an application.