Dr A Revell, Dr B Parslew
No more applications being accepted
Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
About the Project
We are inviting applications for a fully funded PhD studentship to work on the investigation and development of flow control devices for large refrigerated freight vehicles. In partnership with Solomon Commercials in the framework of a MACE-Beacons award, the successful candidate will investigate a range of flow control and drag reduction techniques with potential for direct application and live testing. This work has high potential to realize significant environmental impact given the potential for fuel reduction.
The candidate will have an opportunity to work on a combination of both numerical and experimental work, as mirrored by the competences of the supervisory team, and will fall into two objectives as follows. 1) An improved baseline aerodynamic form, including investigation of efficient mitigation of cabin-trailer gap, customized cabin fairing for refrigerator integration and improved rear streamlining. 2) Incorporation of innovative flow control devices, including bio-inspired passive flow control, porous layers and fairings. A dual experimental-numerical campaign will enable a detailed analysis and performance evaluation. The opportunity in 2) is to explore the incorporation of highly novel flow control technology, which could enable acceleration of breakthrough flow-control technology far more readily than in other sectors.
The successful candidate is not expected to have already obtained experience in both numerical and experimental aerodynamics, but a high level of knowledge should be demonstrable in one of these areas, with in-house training available to compensate where needed. Computational work will make use of a range of numerical tools including finite-volume solvers developed for high fidelity turbulence simulation techniques and immersed boundary methods designed for the simulation of highly deformable surfaces and complex porous structures. Experimental work will make use of recently developed rolling-road capabilities to investigate streamlining of the baseline form and to provide benchmarking data for the numerical work.
Interested candidates are encouraged to contact us with any questions regarding this project. We particularly welcome female applicants and those from an ethnic minority, as they are under-represented within our post-graduate student population at present.
Funding Notes
Funding covers stipend and full tuition fees for home/EU students. Overseas students will need to identify additional funding to cover the difference in fees
Information on standard fees is available here:
http://www.mace.manchester.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-research/degree/
Information on typical stipend is available here:
http://www.mace.manchester.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-research/funding/
References
Entry requirements can be found by selecting the relevant PhD programme at this link:
http://www.mace.manchester.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-research/degree/
Experience with CFD, experimental techniques for aerodynamics