PhD Studentship: Liquid Hydrogen Delivered: Measurement and modelling for efficient and economic management of hydrogen boil-off.

Project title: Liquid Hydrogen Delivered: Measurement and modelling for efficient and economic management of hydrogen boil-off.  

PhD Supervisor: Edward Richardson

Supervisory Team: Edward Richardson; Stephen Turnock; Patrick Beullens

Project description

Liquid hydrogen (LH2) storage and transport enables flexible exploitation of potentially carbon-free energy. In this fully-funded PhD project, you will tackle outstanding fluid-dynamic challenges in cryogenic engineering and contribute to a techno-economic assessment of liquid hydrogen technologies that is needed urgently to inform major infrastructure and technology investments.

You will receive training from and work alongside world-leading academics at the University of Southampton who are leaders in aerospace and maritime engineering science. You will have access to the University’s extensive fluid dynamics laboratories in order to apply advanced experimental approaches, as well as use of the University’s powerful supercomputer Iridis 5 for flow simulation. This project is of significant interest to international businesses, and your work will benefit from privileged access to their data and through collaboration with industrial leaders. The University of Southampton is a member of the UK’s Russell Group of world-class research-intensive universities and ranked in the world’s top 100 Universities.

Storage and transport of liquid hydrogen poses particular challenges because hydrogen boils at minus 253 Celsius. Carriage of liquid hydrogen in zero-emission aircraft and in hydrogen carrier ships requires minimisation and management of hydrogen boil-off. This motivates experimental investigation and computational modelling of the heating effects of the liquid sloshing in the moving tank. The fundamental fluid dynamic investigations in this project will feed into a techno-economic analysis of a range of technologies and strategies for managing boil-off as part of a multi-disciplinary activity funded by the Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute, in collaboration with the University’s Business School.

The funding available is competitive and will only be awarded to an outstanding applicant. As part of the selection process, the strength of the whole application is taken into account, including academic qualifications, personal statement, CV and references. Applications should have a good first degree in a relevant engineering subject, physics or mathematics. Ideally the candidate should have experience in fluid dynamics and demonstrated aptitude for developing computational models.

The School of Engineering is committed to making Engineering more inclusive and is highly supportive of applications from under-represented groups.

The project will start in October 2023.

If you wish to discuss any details of the project informally, please contact Dr Edward Richardson, Aerodynamics and Flight Mechanics, Email: e.s.richardson@soton.ac.uk, Tel: +44 (0) 2380 59 4897.

Entry Requirements

A very good undergraduate degree (at least a UK 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent).

Closing date: applications should be received no later than 16 March 2023 for standard admissions, but later applications may be considered depending on the funds remaining in place.

Funding: For UK students, Tuition Fees and a stipend of £17,668 tax-free per annum for up to 3.5 years.

How To Apply

Apply online: Search for a Postgraduate Programme of Study (soton.ac.uk). Select programme type (Research), 2023/24, Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering, next page select “PhD Engineering & Environment (Full time)”. In Section 2 of the application form you should insert the name of the supervisor Edward Richardson

Applications should include:

• Curriculum Vitae
• Two reference letters
• Degree Transcripts/Certificates to date

For further information please contact: feps-pgr-apply@soton.ac.uk

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