PhD studentship in Mechanical Engineering- Turbulent Bubbly Mixing of weakly to moderately Diffusive Scalars (TuBMiDS)

Overview

Mixing plays a major role in various industries ranging from oil, process, metallurgical, biomedical, food, water, and nuclear industries. This proposed research is about turbulent mixing where we use bubble-induced turbulence for improving the mixing efficiency. We have shown recently those inertial dynamics dominate bubbly turbulent flows. This finding is paramount for mixing as we know that it is the inertial dynamics that tend to generate spatial gradients which are crucial for improved and efficient mixing. 

We will study the mixing of bubbly-induced turbulence in the presence of a mean scalar gradient. We study this configuration for different Schmidt numbers. Since no such study is available on this configuration, we start with weakly to moderately diffusive scalars. 

This project has two objectives. First, to determine the efficiency of bubbly mixing of weakly to moderately diffusive scalars and to compare this with the efficiency of mixing due to homogeneous isotropic turbulence. Second, to compute the time of mixing in bubbly turbulent flows which requires a detailed understanding of how scalar variance is related to its dissipation rate. This will also eventually help us to build turbulence mixing models for mixing in bubbly turbulence. There are opportunities to visit collaborators in the UK as well as in the USA.

Number Of Awards

1

Start Date

18th September 2023

Award Duration

3.5 years

Sponsor

Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)

Supervisors

Dr Immanuvel Paul

Prof. Nilanjan Chakraborty

Eligibility Criteria

You must have, or expect to gain, a minimum 2:1 Honours degree or international equivalent in a relevant subject or subject relevant to the proposed PhD project (mechanical, aerospace, chemical engineering, physics or applied mathematics). Enthusiasm for research, the ability to think and work independently, excellent analytical skills and strong verbal and written communication skills are also essential requirements. 

Home and international applicants (inc. EU) are welcome to apply and if successful will receive a full studentship. Applicants whose first language is not English require an IELTS score of 6.5 overall with a minimum of 5.5 in all sub-skills.

International applicants may require an ATAS (Academic Technology Approval Scheme) clearance certificate prior to obtaining their visa and to study on this programme. 

How To Apply

You must apply through the University’s Apply to Newcastle Portal 

Once registered select ‘Create a Postgraduate Application’.  

Use ‘Course Search’ to identify your programme of study:  

• search for the ‘Course Title’ using the programme code: 8090F
• Research Area: Mechanical and Systems Engineering 
• Select PhD Mechanical and Systems Engineering (full time) – Mechanical and Systems Engineering as the programme of study 

You will then need to provide the following information in the ‘Further Questions’ section:  

• a ‘Personal Statement’ (this is a mandatory field) - upload a document or write a statement directly in to the application form
• the studentship code ENG103 in the ‘Studentship/Partnership Reference’ field  
• when prompted for how you are providing your research proposal - select ‘Write Proposal’. You should then type in the title of the research project from this advert. You do not need to upload a research proposal.   

Contact Details

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