Tore Børvik

The Department of Structural Engineering at NTNU is offering a PhD position focused on the consequences of drone attacks on people, buildings, and critical infrastructure. The project addresses malicious drone use in conflict, especially contact charges, near-field explosions, and fragmentation effects from detonating drones. The doctoral research combines testing, modelling, and simulation of detonating drones. The work aims to improve the accuracy of advanced numerical models by combining representative datasets, systematic sensitivity analyses, and calibration against controlled reference data. Both the detonation process and the fragmentation of the drone must be described with efficient mathematical models, making this a challenging project at the intersection of structural response and extreme-load analysis. The PhD candidate will be part of the project “Managing drone threats to critical infrastructure” , one of four PhD candidates within a larger NTNU effort on A More Resilient Society . The project is framed by the need to better understand, manage, and respond to drone threats in a world where low-cost technology can be used deliberately against vital infrastructure. The work is connected to the research group SIMLab , and the immediate leader is Professor Tore Børvik . The position offers a research environment with international activities, opportunities for publication and dissemination, and involvement in a strong professional setting at NTNU. The advertised work is centered on structural and computational mechanics for resilience against drone-related threats.