Swinburne PhD Scholarship in Phase Change Materials ($30k/year, tax exempt)

　　PhD Scholarship in Civil/Mechanical Engineering

　　A joint scholarship offer by Swinburne and CSIRO

　　Scholarship Description

　　One PhD scholarship is available for a bright graduate who is interested in pursuing a PhD program in building energy efficiency, indoor environment and occupants health by the us of phase change materials. The scholarship comprises $30,500 per year for covering living expenses which is tax exempt plus another $4000 per year for research related expenses. The tuition fees are also free for the student taking up this scholarship. The scholarship will be for 3 years duration in which the candidate will be expected to complete the PhD degree.

　　The PhD program will be undertaken at the Centre for Sustainable Infrastructure (CSI) at Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn Campus. The PhD project is co-funded by Swinburne University of Technology and CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship top-up scholarship (upon a scholarship agreement), and the candidate will be supervised by Dr Xiaoming Wang, Senior Principal Scientist, CSIRO, and Prof Jay Sanjayan and Prof John Wilson from Centre for Sustainable Infrastructure at Swinburne.

　　This scholarship is for either Australian or overseas students who are interested in studying in Australia and have outstanding academic results. Candidates must hold Bachelors and/or Masters level qualifications in Civil, Mechanical or relevant field. Knowledge or experience in environment science and environmental health is desired.

　　Applicants must submit:

　　· Curriculum vitae highlighting qualifications, research experience and publication record;

　　· University transcripts.

　　Research Information

　　This project will investigate different application methods of phase change materials (PCM) in Australian residential and commercial buildings and their effectiveness in reducing the total building energy requirements and improving indoor environment for the benefit of occupants health.

　　To reduce GHG emission, much attentions has been paid to reduce the heating and cooling energy usage in commercial and residential buildings nowadays. In fact, this should not compromise the indoor environment closely linked to health and productivity issues, especially considering the potential increasing temperature under future climate change. One way of achieving co-benefits of energy efficiency and indoor environment improvement is to modulate building thermal performance by incorporating phase change materials (PCM). When the ambient temperature rises over the melting point of PCM during the daytime, it stores heat in latent form at almost constant temperature. The absorbed heat is discharged when the surrounding temperature drops below the freezing point of the PCM at night. It is shown that heating and cooling energy requirement, for maintaining the comfortable indoor temperature, can be reduced through the use of suitable PCM. Meanwhile, it leads to the improvement of indoor thermal environment, which can potentially benefit to the health of occupants. This study will experimentally explore the different methods of PCM applicationin the building such as concrete, wallboard, ceiling, floors etc. Energy efficiency and occupant comfort level at various PCM application methods and climate conditions will be investigated. The outcome of this project will include the design methods to achieve most cobenefits of energy efficiency and indoor environment by applying PCM for residential and commercial buildings in Australia’s climate conditions.

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