Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences

Project Title

Multiscale and zonal turbulent flow simulation on supercomputers 
with local-global CFD code coupling

Lead Supervisor

Prof. D. Laurence, Chair of Computational Fluid Mechanics

Co-Supervisor(s)

Dr. J. Uribe, EDF-Energy & Modelling and Simulation Centre at U. Manchester

Programme

• PhD in Mechanical Engineering
• PhD in Aerospace Engineering
• PhD in Nuclear Engineering

Research Theme

www.mace.manchester.ac.uk/our-research/research-themes/modelling-simulation/

www.mace.manchester.ac.uk/our-research/centres-institutes/masc/

www.mace.manchester.ac.uk/our-research/centres-institutes/rolls-royce/

Details of sponsor & funding available

Confirm breakdown & amount of funding:

The studentship for UK & EU applicants will cover the full home tuition fee (currently £3,996/year). EPSRC plus industrial sponsor’s top-up adds a stipend for UK applicants (currently £16,272/year, tax free) for 3.5 years.

Project Description

• In turbulent Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) is a deterministic approach resolving the entire range of turbulent flow structures on very fine 100 million-cells meshes thus avoiding any turbulence modelling assumption. DNS, a “flawless numerical experiment”, is however very costly and limited to small and simple geometries. In opposition, the industrial CFD workhorse is Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) models tentatively predicting only statistical values.  It is fast, and with fully unstructured meshes applicable to very complex geometries. 
• Current research is deeply focused on combining both deterministic and statistical approaches so that the perfect DNS could be very localized on a detail of vital importance (separating boundary, layer on curved wall, a weld, a junction, a stratification)  while the unstructured RANS mesh economically covers large domains and provides time-dependant boundary conditions to the immersed DNS “microscope”.
• Assisted by a large team of CFD and turbulence modeling experts, the researcher will take this a step further by running the code in parallel but now with different parameters - time and mesh steps, RANS or DNS mode - and develop optimal strategies for coupling of these heterogeneous factors.

Entry requirements

Entry requirements can be found by selecting the relevant PhD programme at this link:http://www.mace.manchester.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-research/degree/

Project Specific skills required

1st or 2.1 degree in science or engineering comprising Numerical Simulation in Fluid Mechanics and preferably Turbulent Flows, as found in Mechanical, Aero or Nuclear Engineering or Applied Maths and Physics degrees

Industrial Links

EDF-ENERGY R&D, Rolls-Royce, Commercial general CFD code vendors, EADS Aerospace.

Application Closing: 28 Feb, 2015 (for possible start up to September 2015)

Project specific enquiries

Dominique.Laurence<στο>manchester.ac.uk

Relevant publications: http://www.mace.manchester.ac.uk/people/staff/academic-staff/profile/publications/index.htm?staffId=177

General enquiries:

General enquiries relating to the postgraduate application process within Mechanical, Aerospace & Civil Engineering should be directed to:

Ruth Whelan PG Senior Recruitment & Admissions Administrator

Tel: +44(0)161 275 4345

Further information about how to apply can be found at:

http://www.mace.manchester.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-research/apply/