DTU Wind Energy at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) is seeking candidates for a Marie Curie funded PhD project under the EU H2020 Marie Curie Actions, Grant Agreement 642108. The objective of the PhD project will be on developing new and cost-effective strategies for Wind farm O&M.

Job Description
The objective of the project is to analyse SCADA and condition monitoring data from existing wind farms with a history of component failures, wind turbine faults and develop detailed probabilistic models to predict specific failures and facilitate preventive maintenance.

The selected PhD candidate will develop operations research based methodologies that seeks to 1) predict lifetime of specific wind turbine components and offshore support structures and 2) develop maintenance schedules considering the weather windows, grid power requirements, mean time to repair and cost of repair to minimize O&M cost and improve availability of wind turbines.

Probabilistic models of the expected lifetime of particular wind turbine components will need to be verified with existing data from wind farms so that the predictive maintenance strategies enable lowering the levelized cost of energy.

The PhD candidate will have two funded external short term stays at a reputed university and industry to further his/her research work and to network amongst other researchers in the field.

Required qualifications

• Master’s degree or equivalent in Mechanical engineering or allied discipline
• Sound understanding of Structural dynamics and Statistics
• Good understanding of engineering mechanics is essential.
• Prior experience in wind energy is a great advantage.
• Fluency in communicating, reading and writing English is essential

Conditions
As a Marie Curie Early stage-researcher, you shall at the time of recruitment be in the first four years (full-time equivalent research experience) of your research career and have not yet been awarded a doctoral degree. At the time of recruitment, you shall not have resided or carried out your main activity (work, studies etc.) in the country of the host institution (Denmark) for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the reference date. Compulsory national service and/or short stays such as holidays are not taken into account.

Salary and appointment terms
The salary and appointment terms are consistent with the current rules for PhD degree students. The period of employment is 3 years. The position will commence from 1 July 2015. The work place is DTU Risø Campus close to Roskilde.

You can read more about the position and apply online on www.career.dtu.dk.