PhD student position - CFD methods for the analysis of Air Cavity Ships

Shipping and Marine Technology covers a wide research field, ranging from environmental research to the development of the latest technologies for propulsion and navigation of ships. Our research aims to improve ship efficiency, marine environment, and working conditions for the ship personnel.

We educate master mariners, marine engineers, and shore-based personnel in shipping. The department currently has about 90 employees, of whom 80 are researchers and teachers at our two research divisions. The department is situated on the expansive Campus Lindholmen. We have Sweden’s most extensive simulator centre for marine transportation and navigation.
Information about the research
The Swedish shipping company Stena AB has, together with the maritime  consultancy company SSPA Sweden AB and Chalmers, for several years run different studies on air lubrication for resistance reduction on large displacement ships. The focus is on so called ACS, i.e. Air Cavity Ships, where the basic idea is to replace a large portion of the flat hull bottom on a ship with a pressurised air chamber in order to reduce the frictional resistance of the hull. In previous studies some issues in understanding the flow behaviour and the exisitng modelling techniques have been identified and this project is aimed at resolving some of these issues.The objectives are to (1) develop an improved computational method to simulate the two phase mixture of air and water that occurs in the aft part of the air chamber; (2) to study the scaling behaviour from model to full scale of the flow in this region; and (3) use primarily simulations to improve the understanding of the flow aft of the chamber.

Current methodology is based on multiphase RANS with a VoF method to represent the mixture. Both well resolved LES will need to be performed as well as model development to improve the RANS predictions. The project will start with investigation of generic air cavity that has been tested in the cavitation tunnel at SSPA but will involve work also on realistic geometries. Simulations will be run using both commercial and open source CFD software on large parallel computers. The project will require from the PhD student a strong numerical background and good capability to study flow physics.The research will be performed in close collaboration with the industrial partners, SSPA and Stena, and support the continued development of a ready to implement ACS.  

Major responsibilities
Your major responsibility as PhD student is to pursue your own doctoral studies, which include work in the research project but also to take doctoral courses. You are expected to develop your own scientific concepts and communicate the results of your research verbally and in writing; working language is English. The position generally also includes teaching, primarily in the Masters programme in Naval Architecture and Ocean Enigneering or performing other duties corresponding to maximum 20 per cent of working hours.

Position summary
Full-time temporary employment. The position is limited to a maximum of five years.

Qualifications
To qualify as a PhD student, you must have a master's level degree corresponding to at least 240 higher education credits in a relevant field. The position requires sound verbal and written communication skills in  English. Good knowledge in CFD, unsteady simulations, multiphase flows, and turbulence modeling is beneficial. 

Application procedure
The application should be marked with Ref 20140034 and written in English. The application should be sent electronically via Chalmers webpage.

Application deadline: February 28, 2014

For questions, please contact:
Professor Rickard Bensow, SMT, rickard.bensow@chalmers.se
Abolfazl Shiri, SMT, abolfazl.shiri@chalmers.se
Claes Eskilsson, SMT, claes.eskilsson@chalmers.se




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Chalmers University of Technology conducts research and education in engineering sciences, architecture, technology-related mathematical sciences, natural and nautical sciences, working in close collaboration with industry and society.

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