Mechanism of corrosion protection of steel by duplex coatings during long-term outdoor exposure

Department/Location:                                 Technopark Kralupy of University of Chemical Technology Prague

Deadline for CV submission:    31 March 2017

Starting:                                              September 2017

Qualification:                                   Master’s degree

Department of Metallic Materials within Technopark Kralupy research centre invites applications for full-time 4 year PhD studentship starting in September 2017. The department’s activities revolves around corrosion protection, corrosion monitoring and development and optimization of corrosion-resistant materials for building applications, but reach into many other fields such as the automotive industry, power generation etc. The department, despite being operational for about a year already has strong collaboration with international and domestic partners.

The offered work position is part of a project with the world’s largest steel producer – ArcelorMittal. The project is focused on long-term service performance of duplex coatings on steel used widely for roofing and siding in the building industry, which will be studied using a number of non-conventional experimental setups. Standard tests of prepainted coil-coated steel products have been found to provide only partial correlation with performance in real conditions. Specifically, the study will focus on the difference in corrosion mechanisms of panels of different sizes, corrosion during storage, the delamination of coating around defects and the effect of forming on corrosion stability. Advanced monitoring techniques will be applied to obtain real-time data from field.

The impact of the project lies in more accurate prediction of performance in real conditions, thusly allowing the manufacture to better optimize corrosion protection and increase the longevity of coated steel products.

Most of the experimental work will be performed at Department of Metallic Materials in Technopark Kralupy, Czech Republic. The city of Kralupy nad Vltavou is within 20 minutes (by public transport) from Prague and about 30 minutes from the University of Chemical Technology Prague. The PhD study will be formally placed under the Metallurgy program of the University of Chemical Technology Prague and the candidate can thus make use of the university‘s latest analytical and other equipment.

The project length is four years. It is wholly funded by ArcelorMittal. The candidate will be required to communicate regularly with representatives of ArcelorMittal and present results in company’s research facilities in Europe and elsewhere. The project will be supervised by Dr Tomas Prosek who has a long experience in this field of research and is widely recognized by the community.

The candidate will be offered above-standard salary as well as 6 weeks of paid vacation per year.

For further information, do not hesitate to contact us: