PhD Studentship : Civil Engineering: Fully Funded PhD studentship in High-Order Mesh Generation for Complex Industrial Geometries with Multiscale Features

High-order solvers offer clear accuracy advantages, yet their effectiveness is fundamentally limited by the availability of suitable high-order meshes for complex industrial geometries. Current workflows rely heavily on geometric de-featuring, an expert-driven, manual, and time-consuming process used to simplify CAD models so that meshing tools can cope with small-scale features such as fillets and manufacturing details. This de-featuring is not only expensive but also problem-dependent, as the relevance of a geometric detail varies with the physics being simulated. Concepts such as virtual topology have emerged to make meshing more flexible by allowing elements to span across multiple CAD faces without explicitly modifying the geometry. However, these ideas have not yet been developed in high-order settings, where curved elements, geometric fidelity, and element quality requirements make the problem considerably harder.

The aim of this project is to develop new methodologies and software tools that enable high-order meshes to be generated automatically for large, intricate industrial geometries without requiring extensive de-featuring. The key idea is to allow high-order elements to traverse multiple CAD surfaces, extending the virtual topology concept to curved, high-order discretisation, while preserving accuracy, mesh validity, and robustness. This will involve advances in CAD–CAE interfacing, curved element optimisation, multiscale geometric feature detection, and error-controlled surface approximation. The resulting technology will be tested on real industrial geometries provided by partners in aerospace and energy such as Airbus and UKAES, where current workflows still depend on substantial manual model clean-up. By removing the reliance on de-featuring and enabling reliable high-order meshing of complex shapes, the project will substantially shorten preparation times and accelerate the adoption of high-order methods in industrial design and analysis.

As the PhD researcher on this project, you will develop the numerical, geometric and algorithmic techniques needed to generate reliable high order meshes for complex, multiscale industrial geometries. You will work within a technically focused research group that maintains regular interaction with major industrial partners, giving you direct exposure to the challenges companies face when preparing large CAD models for high fidelity simulation. This project will allow you to work with demanding real-world geometries and to build specialist expertise in high order mesh generation, geometric modelling and CAD to CAE integration. These capabilities are of growing importance to industry yet remain available to only a small number of researchers, providing you with a rare and highly valued skill set that aligns strongly with careers in scientific computing and engineering simulation.

Funding

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