Postdoctoral Researcher in Offshore Pile Load and Displacement Analysis Nantes Université in France

Postdoctoral Researcher in Offshore Pile Load and Displacement Analysis at Nantes Université, France.

This postdoctoral position is part of the SLOOP project, funded by the ORACLE LabEx, and focuses on the transition from deterministic to stochastic modelling for offshore wind turbine foundations. The project addresses the challenge of predicting long-term cumulative displacements of offshore monopiles in realistic marine environments, where multidirectional stochastic loading and increasing turbine scale make standard design approaches insufficient.

The successful postdoctoral researcher will join Work Package 2 and work on soil-pile interaction under offshore loading conditions. Main research activities include integrating aero-hydrodynamic load time series from École Centrale de Nantes into the geotechnical workflow, developing and calibrating high-fidelity 3D ABAQUS models of monopile-sand interaction, and using centrifuge data from Gustave Eiffel University to calibrate advanced constitutive soil models such as Hypoplasticity and SANISAND. The project also involves simulations under monotonic, unidirectional cyclic, and multidirectional loading conditions.

Additional responsibilities include developing simplified or macro-element models for cyclic loading, improving P-y curves and stiffness-degradation laws, and contributing to long-term displacement prediction tools for offshore foundation design. The postdoctoral researcher will also take part in co-supervision of MSc interns, collaborate closely with hydrodynamics and centrifuge specialists, and contribute to project meetings, deliverables, journal papers, and conference presentations.

The research environment is highly collaborative and interdisciplinary. The work connects GeM at Nantes Université, LHEEA at École Centrale de Nantes, and the Geotechnical Centrifuge Laboratory at Gustave Eiffel University. The project provides access to experimental and numerical datasets from major offshore geotechnical projects such as SOLCYP, SOLCYP+, MUTANC, and SLOOP, along with a dedicated workstation and high-performance computing resources. The postholder will join an ORACLE LabEx network linking geotechnics, hydrodynamics, and offshore renewable energy research.

Eligibility highlights: applicants should hold a PhD or equivalent in civil engineering or a closely related field. The position is full-time, temporary, and based in France, with a planned start date of 4 January 2027. The application deadline is 4 November 2026 at 15:00 (Africa/Freetown).