PhD student with focus on high-fidelity offshore wind farm modelling

PhD student in meteorology with focus on high-fidelity offshore wind farm modelling

Are you looking for a PhD that is in close collaboration with one of the largest offshore wind farms developer in Europe? Do you want to experience living in Sweden and Germany and travel to other European countries for courses and congresses? We welcome you to apply for this position at Uppsala University.

The Department of Earth Sciences at Uppsala University is Sweden´s largest and most versatile department of its kind. We are approximately 280 employees. Our activities are interdisciplinary and combine natural science and technology with social science. We have research programs in air, water and landscape science; geophysics; natural resources and sustainable development; petrology, mineralogy and tectonics; paleobiology, and wind energy. By investigating the history of Earth, we understand how our planet has developed over time and how sustainable development benefits from this knowledge. We have two campus one in Uppsala and one at Gotland. Read more here: https://www.uu.se/en/department/earth-sciences

The Wind Energy Division is located at Campus Gotland, an international campus in the middle of world heritage town Visby. Our division is engaged in activities related to wind power project development and sustainable energy transition. These activities include teaching, research and outreach. 

The group currently consists of about 25 persons who focus on the high-fidelity modeling, planning, development and management of wind power projects as well as on sustainable energy transition. These individuals have a range of backgrounds and the group has competencies in technical, natural- and social science. The group’s teaching consists of both campus and distance education at the Bachelors level and beyond.

The section will expand in the coming years and this is one out of six new PhD positions. This research project is a collaboration with the Offshore Wind Resource & Production Department at Vattenfall based in Hamburg, Germany. The project is also a part of a large international academic collaboration network.

The division is located at Campus Gotland, an international campus in the middle of world heritage town Visby. https://www.uu.se/en/department/earth-sciences/research/wind-energy

Duties

Trends such as larger wind farms and larger wind turbine rotors require high fidelity models such as large-eddy simulation (LES) to predict and understand the underlying aerodynamic and meteorological phenomena. Within this PhD project you will be part of a research group that focuses on fluid mechanics of individual wind turbines and wind farms. The project is concerned with the development of new modelling capabilities of an established numerical model. The main focus will be on the development, implementation and validation of a solver in an existing GPU-resident Lattice Boltzmann framework.

These new modelling capabilities shall be applied to the simulation of stratified atmospheric boundary layer flows and their interaction with large offshore wind farms. All research activities will be in close collaboration with Vattenfall’s Offshore Wind Resource and Production team, including joint validation studies on operational offshore wind farms. This is a unique opportunity to link the research studies with real world cases and understand the needs of the wind energy industry from the wind farm developer point of view.

In addition to the work on research projects and graduate courses, you will participate in other activities within the section of wind energy. These may consist of teaching and/or administrative work and will be up to 20% of the work hours.

The position is mainly located at Campus Gotland (Visby, Sweden). Within the 4 years, the PhD student will have an external research stay of approximately 1 year at Vattenfall in Hamburg, Germany. Further external stays are possible, e.g. for PhD courses. 

Requirements
To meet the entry requirements for doctoral studies, you must

• hold a Master’s (second-cycle) degree in meteorology, physics, engineering or similar, or
• have completed at least 240 credits in higher education, with at least 60 credits at Master’s level including an independent project worth at least 15 credits, or
• have acquired substantially equivalent knowledge in some other way.

Knowledge in fluid dynamics and numerics is required alongside programming experience in object-oriented languages.

Additional qualifications

Experience in the development of advanced computational fluids dynamics (CFD) tools is meritorious, in particular using the lattice-Boltzmann method (LBM). Experience in high performance computing and the development GPU-applications (using CUDA) is also a plus. Furthermore, academic and/or industrial experience in the field of wind power is a merit. For personal characteristics, the applicant should be independent, flexible, high achievement orientated and possess a high ability to cooperate.

Rules governing PhD students are set out in the Higher Education Ordinance chapter 5, §§ 1-7 and in Uppsala University's rules and guidelines.

The application should include a letter describing the applicant and his or her qualifications. It should also include CV, copies of diplomas and certificates, thesis and publications. We encourage you to provide details of referees and/or attach a letter of recommendation.

About the employment
The employment is a temporary position according to the Higher Education Ordinance chapter 5 § 7. Scope of employment 100 %. Starting date 15-01-2025 or as agreed. Placement: Visby, Gotland.

For further information about the position, please contact: 

Professor and Head of Division Stefan Ivanell, stefan.ivanell@geo.uu.se or +4618-471 83 60.

Please submit your application by 25 October 2024, UFV-PA 2024/3254.

Are you considering moving to Sweden to work at Uppsala University? Find out more about what it´s like to work and live in Sweden.

About Campus Gotland: Uppsala University Campus Gotland offers the best of two worlds: the full-scale university’s broad offering and weight and a unique, small-scale campus in an interdisciplinary research environment. Campus Gotland is a hub for the University’s research and education in sustainability. Find out what it’s like to live on Gotland.