The Danish Hydrocarbon Research and Technology Centre (Centre for Oil and Gas - DTU), Technical University of Denmark (DTU), invites applicants for two PhD positions in stainless steels for offshore oil and gas applications.

Centre for Oil and Gas - DTU is established by the Danish Underground Consortium and DTU. The centre has received a starting grant of DKK 1 billion for a 10-year period and relies on close interaction between Academia and industry.

As part of the National Strategy on Oil and Gas, the research centre is an ambitious, targeted effort to enable increased recovery of oil and gas from the Danish North Sea. The goal will be achieved by cooperation with the industry and other research institutions to further progress knowledge and solutions with application potential, and by contributing to research-based teaching programs.

Responsibilities and tasks

PhD I: Improving the wear- and corrosion resistance of high-performance stainless steel by interstitial alloying
High performance stainless steels are the materials of choice for oil and gas applications where severe environments of corrosion are encountered. The present project aims to investigate how corrosion and wear properties can be improved by interstitial surface alloying with nitrogen.

The proposed working hypothesis is that higher nitrogen contents will significantly improve corrosion resistance and simultaneously impart the materials with vastly improved wear properties - far beyond the performance of existing stainless steel alloys.

PhD II: Supermartensitic stainless steels for oil and gas applications
In the oil and gas sector supermartensitic stainless steels (SMSS) can be a low cost alternative to highly alloyed (super) duplex and superaustenitic stainless steels or Ni-base alloys due to their very high strength and excellent fatigue and wear resistance. The excellent strength and toughness properties are obtained through relatively complex microstructure transformations.

The working hypothesis for the proposed project is that improved understanding and modeling of the microstructure formation during heat treatment and welding of SMSS may enable model-based alloy design to further optimize steel composition, heat treatment and welding conditions.