PhD student position in Analysis and optimisation of marine propulsion systems

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 and participate in teaching activities. 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 Engineering, or performing other duties corresponding to maximum 20 per cent of working hours.

Description

In the design of a marine propulsion system there are a number of interactions to consider. They result in both losses and gains and to achieve optimal efficiency these must be balanced in the best possible way. This is often not the case today, but rather optimisation is performed on each component separately. The reason for this is partly due the market conditions, but also stems from a lack in understanding some of the effects. This is primarily related to that knowledge and evaluation methodologies today are mostly based on model scale data and not at real operating conditions in full scale. It is estimated that there is a large potential of reduced fuel burn, around 10% or more, and there is thus a great industrial interest if a better and more complete system analysis could be performed.

The objective of this project, developed in cooperation between Chalmers and Rolls-Royce Marine, is to map what affects the propulsion system and improve the understanding of these components, and to demonstrate how this can be used to achieve energy savings for newbuilds as well as for upgrading of ships. The investigations will primarily be based on advanced CFD simulations and using these to analyse complex flow around the propulsion system and the hull. The knowledge developed will be used to propose and test designs and optimisation procedures together with Rolls-Royce Marine and implement this into their industrial tools and methodologies. Good knowledge in CFD is thus required and basic understanding of marine propulsion systems is a merit.

The PhD project will be performed within the Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre in Computational Hydrodynamics (http://www.chalmers.se/en/projects/Pages/Rolls-Royce-UTC.aspx) at Chalmers, where both fundamental and industrial research is performed in close collaboration with the hydrodynamic team at Rolls-Royce AB in Kristinehamn, Sweden, as well as with other Rolls-Royce sites in Norway and the UK.

Nr of positions available : 1