Doctoral Researcher in Rock Mechanics for underground hydrogen storage and risk-based design

Aalto University is where science and art meet technology and business. We shape a sustainable future by making research breakthroughs in and across our disciplines, sparking the game changers of tomorrow and creating novel solutions to major global challenges. Our community is made up of 120 nationalities, 14 000 students, 400 professors and close to 5000 faculty and staff working on our dynamic campus in Espoo, Greater Helsinki, Finland. Diversity is part of who we are, and we actively work to ensure our community’s diversity and inclusiveness. This is why we warmly encourage qualified candidates from all backgrounds to join our community. The School of Engineering drives science and innovation in industrial and built environment technologies. The Department of Civil Engineering hosts Rock Engineering researchers and the Aalto Underground Research Laboratory (URLA), a research tunnel on the Otaniemi campus that allows full-scale in-situ rock mechanics experiments.We are now looking for aDoctoral Researcher in Rock Mechanics with a strong interest in underground hydrogen storage and risk-based designNo storage, no transition. Underground hydrogen storages are one option to cope with the variable supply of renewable energy. Lined rock caverns can hold gas at 250–700 bar, but there is no consensus on the optimal cavern shape, on the required rock roof thickness, or on how the rock mass and the liner behave under cyclic high pressure. In the Research Council of Finland project Safety of High-Pressure Storage Caverns in Finnish Bedrock (KORVA 2026–2030) you will help build the first experimentally validated, risk-based design framework for high-pressure caverns in hard rock. Very few doctoral positions anywhere let you design a model in the morning and pressurise real rock underground in the afternoon. Join us in shaping a more sustainable future!Your role and goalsIntegrating geological datasets and applying solutions across Finnish bedrockDeveloping numerical, probabilistic, and analytical models that optimise cavern shape and depth under combined internal gas pressure and anisotropic in-situ stressPlanning and running the in-situ uplift experiments and cyclic liner testsBuilding the measurement chain from displacement sensors, pressure measurement, data acquisition to running the supporting laboratory testsAssessing the levelised cost of hydrogen storage alongside the technical riskPublishing data and results openly, and contributing to the design guidelinesThe doctoral degree is granted after successfully completing a set of advanced taught courses (30 ECTS), writing a doctoral thesis (usually based on publications), and defending the thesis in a public examination. During the duration of the doctoral studies, the researcher will be expected to present publish in leading academic journals and high-level scientific conferences, actively participate in the research group activities, assist in the preparation of new research proposals, engage in...