EPSRC FIBE3 CDT PhD studentship with Tracey Concrete: Next generation low-carbon crack-resistant precast shaft and tunnel segments

id="offer-description" class="ecl-u-type-heading-2 ecl-u-mt-none ecl-u-mb-l">Offer Description This is a four-year (1+3 MRes/PhD) studentship funded through the Cambridge EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Future Infrastructure and Built Environment: Unlocking Net Zero (FIBE3 CDT). Further details can be found at https://www.net-zero-fibe-cdt.eng.cam.ac.uk/ . This project is funded in collaboration with Tracey Concrete, a leading precast manufacturer extending its tunnelling range from jacking pipes and cover slabs into shaft segments and seeking to introduce lower-carbon materials while improving the performance and durability of its products. Precast manufacturing is a key modern method of construction that enables efficient and low-carbon fabrication under factory-controlled conditions that optimise material mix designs, energy use and curing conditions. Tunnels and shafts, typically 5-25m in diameter, are commonly constructed from a series of interconnected segments. Such shaft segments undergo a demanding manufacturing process as well as aggressive application environments. They are cast in low-workability mixes, demoulded, lifted and handled at an early age, and assembled into rings that must meet millimetre-level dimensional tolerances and remain watertight in aggressive ground and groundwater conditions throughout the service life of the asset. Reducing embodied carbon requires greater use of alternative binder blends and alternatives to steel fibre reinforcement,