Postdoc in Extensions to a Fast Nonlinear Coastal Wave Evolution Tool

Technical University of Denmark - Department of Mechanical Engineering

A one-year post-doc scholarship is available at Department of Mechanical Engineering at DTU, Technical University of Denmark, in the field of fast tools for predicting highly nonlinear waves in coastal regions.

The department has well-established research programs in Coastal and Maritime Engineering, as well as Mathematical and Numerical Modeling of Ocean Waves and their interaction with Fixed and Floating Structures. This project is funded by the Danish Innovation Fund as part of the DeRisk project with the goal of improving the accuracy of the Ultimate Limit State (ULS) design loads on offshore wind turbines.

The anticipated starting date is between July 1st and August 1st 2015.

Responsibilities and tasks
Cost reduction within offshore wind energy is vital for achieving the 2020 goal of 50% wind share of the Danish electricity supply. The DeRisk project is a collaboration between 8 partners and aims to provide new design methods with reduced risk and uncertainty for extreme wave loads (the ULS, or Ultimate Limit State) which are often design-giving for the support structure. DeRisk examines the design chain from met-ocean data to structural response. Joint probability methods are developed for analysis of met-ocean data. Wave transformation over depth is computed with ground-breaking fully nonlinear, GPU-accelerated (Graphical Processor Unit) wave models. Specialised tools for high-frequency ringing-type and breaking wave loads are developed and validated against high-quality experiments.

This post-doc will be responsible for extending an existing fully nonlinear, GPU accelerated, wave model to allow for arbitrarily complex far-field boundary conditions in order to introduce 3D directional waves based either on theoretical descriptions or the motions of wave-paddles in an experimental facility. The extension will be made in collaboration with DTU Compute and DTU Wind Energy. A model for the dissipative effects of wave breaking will also be implemented. The implementation will be validated by comparison with a series of experiments in the wave tank, and kinematics data will be made available to the other project partners. 

Qualifications
Candidates should have a PhD degree in Mechanical/Ocean Engineering or a similar scientific field. Strong skills are required in: scientific computing; fluid mechanics; applied mathematics; and programming in C/C++, Fortran, CUDA and Matlab; as well as a keen interest in nonlinear wave dynamics, wave-structure interaction and the associated physical processes. Documented knowledge and experience within hydrodynamics, linear and nonlinear wave theories and numerical solution of free-surface flow problems will be considered as an advantage. 

Application procedure
To apply, please read the full job advertisement at www.career.dtu.dk

Application deadline: 15 May 2015

DTU Mechanical Engineering covers the fundamental engineering disciplines within Solid mechanics, Fluid mechanics, Coastal and Maritime Engineering, Energy systems and energy conversion, Materials and Surface Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Engineering design and Product development. The department has a scientific staff of about 100 persons, 110 PhD students and a technical/administrative support staff of about 85 persons. 

DTU is a technical university providing internationally leading research, education, innovation and public service. Our staff of 5,700 advance science and technology to create innovative solutions that meet the demands of society; and our 10,000 students are being educated to address the technological challenges of the future. DTU is an independent academic university collaborating globally with business, industry, government, and public agencies.

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