PhD Studentship in Wind Energy

Deadline: 21 Oct 2023                                             

Start date: Jan 2023 

Project: Optimazation strategy of VAWT farms based on advanced numerical modeling

This PhD scholarship offers a unique opportunity for a bright and motivated individual from an Engineering, Physics or Applied Mathematics disciplinary background to work on an exciting project between Oxford Brookes University and SeaTwirl (industrial partner and a world-leading manufacturer for large-scale vertical axis wind turbines). Applicants must have a good first degree, strong numerical/analytical skills (or would be able and willing to develop) and experience of processing large amounts of technical data. Project seeks to advance the next generation of wind farms based on Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs). 

Brief Project Description

There is an urgent need towards green transition (zero emissions) and sustainable energy with projection for the offshore wind to be able to meet more than 30% of UK power needs and cover about 15% of the EU’s power demand by 2030. It is apparent that uptake of offshore wind could become the leading element for the renewable energy production. 

The successful candidate will work in an exciting project that will advance the production yields of wind energy and provide sustainable green solutions for the energy future of our planet. Following our recent research study “Renewable Energy 171 (2021) 1371-1381” on VAWTs that received worldwide attention by top media sources such as FORBES, The NewYorker, The Independent etc. and showed that when these turbines work in pairs they enhance each other's performance by up to 15%, this project will take the next step towards understanding the complex fluid phenomena helping with this substantial increase and expand to wind farm layouts using combination of experimental data and results from computational engineering tools. 

In specific, project will focus on testing various turbine combinations and configurations (angle, distance, rotation etc.) to identify the most efficient farm layout. Consequently, a 3D analysis will be performed and potentially move to more realistic modelling in conjunction with SeaTwirl. This can lead to developing an efficient and accurate numerical tool to achieve optimum configurations for varying setups and geometries in real scenarios. Project goal is to improve layout and power density in a VAWTs farm maximizing wind power production.

This is a team project so the successful candidate will collaborate with researchers and engineers at the industrial partner and interact with others at Oxford Brookes University. Visit to partner’s locations (Sweden) maybe required.

Requirements

Essential:

• Experience in studies (numerical, theoretical or both) with strong understanding of fluid dynamics
• Ability to use renowned CFD packages like Star CCM and Ansys Fluent.
• Ability to undertake scientific programming in Matlab, Python, Fortran, C/C++, etc

Desirable:

• Knowledge of open source CFD packages like OpenFOAM and SU2.
• Ability to undertake programming in Linux based packages.  

How to apply

To apply see the submission instructions: https://sites.google.com/brookes.ac.uk/tde-research/studentships-how-to-apply?authuser=0

When completing your application Online via the above 'Apply' button - please note the following:

Title: PhD in Wind Energy

Select the following course: MPhil/PhD in Engineering

Application deadline: 5pm GMT on 21 October

For informal inquiries contact Professor Iakovos Tzanakis (itzanakis@brookes.ac.uk)

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