PhD Student at Barcelona Supercomputing Center

http://www.b-value.com/info.php?jobid=550 The ambitious objectives of the Kyoto protocol, together with the predicted shortage of fossil fuel, require new technologies for an optimized combustion of sustainable fuels. Although alternative approaches for power generation are rapidly developing, they still represent a minor share of the current needs and rely on fossil fuel combustion to guarantee power production when there is no sun or no wind. In this strategy, gas turbines (GT) are essential elements: they are the only engines capable to propel an aircraft or helicopter as well as a versatile and efficient tool to produce electricity. A GT is composed of a compressor, a combustor and a turbine, and its operation is driven by combustion, heat transfer, thermal behaviour of the solid parts, acoustics and noise generation and mechanical vibration. Untill now GTs have been designed following individual pathways for each component (compressor, combustor and turbine), and each physical phenomenon. However the individual behaviour of the components can be very different from their behaviour when mounted together in an engine. Therefore, developing numerical tools and methodologies to simulate the entire GT with all physical effects is a new challenge and the overall scientific objective of COPA-GT, a Marie Curie project (PEOPLE program of the EC), involving 8 partners from industry and academia, located in 6 european countries. Responsibilities: The proposed PhD focuses on the computational aspects of multi-physics coupling in gas turbines, ie. the combustion chamber (unsteady reacting flow) with the turbine and/or compressor stages. Such simulations require to consistently and simultaneously run different flow solvers on the different elements, coupled through the connecting interfaces between the elements. The variety of models and numerical approaches used in these solvers implies to develop robust and accurate methodologies of coupling, to ensure numerical stability and parallel efficiency. High parallelization standards are key points, being HPC techniques a central issue in this research project.   The solvers to be used (AVBP and/or elsA and Alya for benchmarking) for the work are already available. Code coupling will be performed under the O-Palm software developed at CERFACS.  Finally, to meet the project’s objecive, the work will be divided in three specific steps: 1.- Development and analysis of the fundamentals of coupling 2.- Validations on simple test cases 3.- Application on a typical gas turbine used in aeronautical propulsion Please send your CV and cover letter via e-mail to rrhh@bsc.es, including the vacancy reference (PhD_Student_COPA.Barcelona Adds Value) in the subject of the message. Deadline: September 2012   A Selection committee will examine and select applications, based on criteria defined by the project. Note that eligibility rules concerning nationality apply (see copagt.cerfacs.fr for details).

Details

Job Ref: PhD_Student_COPA.Barcelona Adds Value. Hours: Full Time Location: Barcelona (City) Working Term: Fellowships & Grants Salary: Application Deadline: 30/09/2012