PhD student position in CFD for hydropower lifetime analysis

We are looking for a highly motivated, skilled and persistent PhD student with cross-disciplinary experiences in CFD and structural analysis, to study flow-induced forces in hydraulic turbines during different operating sequences and their effects on the lifetime on the machines.

Project description
The fast growth of intermittent renewable energy from wind and solar power, as well as the varying electricity demands from the market, make the hydropower frequency/power regulation become increasingly important to stabilize our electrical grid. Major questions in the hydropower industry are how to safely operate the turbines during the transients that are needed due to the continuously changing request for electric power, which effect this has on the hydropower plants, which costs it is associated with, how to plan for efficient additional maintainance due to the new circumstances, and which lifetime that is expected for different components. This requires a detailed understanding of the flow-induced forces in the turbines, and their effects on the turbine structures, while operating at off-design conditions and during transients.

The project will study how different operating sequences affect the flow in the turbines and how the flow-induced forces affect the wetted structural parts of the machine. The flow-induced forces influence the stresses and strains in the blades, the mounting points of the blades (which for adaption of blade angles is prone to excessive wear during transients), and the complex hydraulic-mechanical-electrical coupling in the rotor system. The forces determined by CFD should be used to determine the stresses in the blades, as well as the transfer of the forces to the mounting points and to their structures. The project is a part of the Swedish Hydropower competence center (SVC), where research is conducted in all aspects of hydropower, and where collaboration between the different researchers at the partner universities and industries is encouraged.

Information about the division and the department
The project is a collaboration between the divisions of Fluid Dynamics (FD) and Marine Technology (MT), at the department of Mechanics and Maritime Sciences (M2). The employment and the work space is at the divison of Fluid Dynamics, in the group of Applied Fluid Dynamics. The project team consists of Professor Håkan Nilsson (FD), acting as main supervisor, specialized and working extensively on problems related to hydro power engineering during the past 25 years, Dr. Saeed Salehi (FD), acting as co-supervisor, developer of numerical tools in OpenFOAM for studies of transient operation of hydraulic turbines, and Professor Rickard Bensow (MT), acting as examiner and contributing to supervision, expert in cavitation in marine applications. Colleagues at Vattenfall Research and Development are particularly involved in the project, giving access to experimental data and exchanging knowledge and experiences, but also other hydropower plant owners are closely related to the project. The simulations will be done at resources given by the Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing and Chalmers Centre for Computational Science and Engineering.

Information about:

Department of Mechanics and Maritime Sciences (M2)

Division of Fluid Dynamics and the group of Applied Fluid Dynamics at M2

Division of Marine Technology at M2

Major responsibilities
Your main responsibility is to conduct the research project and to publish high-quality journal papers. To accomplish this, you need to communicate with the participating industries about the needs of both the project and the industry. As a PhD student, you also contribute as a teaching assistant about 10% of your time, and you should take an equivalent of one year of courses to strengthen and widen your knowledge.

Qualifications
To qualify for this PhD student position, you must have a master in applied mechanics or similar, including courses in fluid mechanics, computational fluid dynamics, turbulence modelling, and structural mechanics. Passed course(s) in turbomachinery / hydropower technology / hydropower systems is a plus, as well as in-depth knowledge and experiences of the underlying methods used in CFD and turbulence modelling, advanced analysis of CFD results, and programming. The CFD code to be used is OpenFOAM, while the choise of structural solver is more open. The position requires excellent oral and written communication skills in English. It is encouraged that foreign PhD students learn Swedish, for which courses are offered.

You are expected to take initiatives, work independently when needed and to take responsibility for your work. Further, the project interacts closely with adjacent disciplines and industry. Thus you need to have high collaborative skills. Finally, you need to be able to disseminate results and knowledge within existing and new networks. This includes academia, industry and society at large. Experience from publishing articles in international scientific journals is a plus, as well as documented experience of presenting research results in front of a large audience.

Contract terms
Full-time temporary employment. The position is limited to a maximum of 4.5-5 years, depending on the amount of teaching and departmental work you do during your doctoral project.

We offer
Chalmers offers a cultivating and inspiring working environment in the coastal city of Gothenburg. 
Read more about working at Chalmers and our benefits for employees.

Chalmers aims to actively improve our gender balance. We work broadly with equality projects, for example the GENIE Initiative on gender equality for excellence. Equality and diversity are substantial foundations in all activities at Chalmers.

More infromation and apply here


Application deadline: December 8, 2022



For questions, please contact:
Professor Håkan Nilsson, M2 Division of Fluid Dynamics, hakan.nilsson@chalmers.se,
Tel: +46 (0)31 772 1414

*** Chalmers declines to consider all offers of further announcement publishing or other types of support for the recruiting process in connection with this position. ***