Hi everyone, These days I have started looking for some Phd studentship. My background is; I have done Master's in Computational mechanics of materials and structures from University of Stuttgart, Germany. As in this course we concentrated on materials and structures, not on fluids. But i want to continue doing PhD in some field like Fluid/structure interaction problems. I have done my master's thesis in the field of computational contact mechanics. Can someone guide me how to proceed and where can I look for such kind of position. Kind Regards, Aamir

Well, you may want to stick to your field. CFD is not so promising as it sounds. Your field seems to be much more interesting because the contact mechanism is not well established, if i am right. There are other interesting related fields such as sliding interface problem. More importantly, CFD market is much smaller than the structure analysis market. -Selina

Thanks Selina for the prompt reply. I also want to stick to contact mechanics field but this is also a developing field and still very limited number of people in this field. So what I mean is less opportunity for funding. But definitely if one gives me choice then contact mechanics will be my first choice.

Thanx again for the guidance.

Kind Regards, Aamir

There are plenty of universities that do fluid-structure interaction problems.As a matter of fact 99% of the aerospace dept's have faculty who do some sort of aeroelasticity work. MIT,Stanford,UMich,UIllinois,etc..to name some in the US. As far as contact mechanics and fluid-structure interaction problems I would look into the aeroelasticity field where flutter due to free-play is an issue as is LCO due to nonlinear damping(nonlinear friction). Do a literature search to find Prof's working in fields that you think may be of interest to you.

There are groups in Aachen and in Braunschweig doing Fluid-Structure Interaction for airplanewings. You might want to look there.

Why do you suggest that the fact the the CFD market is smaller than the structural analysis market is a good reason for staying in structural analysis? People should study for a Ph.D because it motivates them intellectually, rather than purely financially. Financial rewards (large pay packets after graduation) are there for all Ph.D students of all disiplines if they want them.