About the project
High speed boundary layer transition to turbulence over rough surfaces with heat transfer is an outstanding problem in fluid mechanics, with important technological applications. On this project you'll use scale-resolving numerical simulation to understand the flow physics and develop new prediction methods.
Rough surfaces are encountered in many engineering applications, leading to localised heating and early transition to turbulence. An extreme example is the ablating surface of a heat shield in hypersonic flow, for example during atmospheric entry where overall weight depends on how reliably the flow-induced heating can be predicted.
On this project you'll carry out well-resolved flow simulations (using direct and large-eddy simulation of transition to turbulence) to understand transition mechanisms for different types of rough surface and assess prediction methods for engineering applications. You'll gain experience with state-of-the-art simulation methods, using exascale-level high performance computers, based on modern heterogenous GPU/CPU computer architectures, and gain experience with large data processing techniques and reduced order modelling methods.
You'll join a team of researchers in Southampton studying problems in high and low speed flows using scale-resolving simulation techniques, including all aspects of transition and turbulent flow. You'll be based in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Boldrewood Innovation Campus in Southampton, benefiting from a large community of PhD and post-doctoral researchers. Training will be provided to get you up to speed in running the code-generation framework to generate code for high performance computer applications. You'll have opportunities to present your work internally as well as to attend and present at international conferences.
The School of Engineering is committed to promoting equality, diversity inclusivity as demonstrated by our Athena SWAN award. We welcome all applicants regardless of their gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation or age, and will give full consideration to applicants seeking flexible working patterns and those who have taken a career break. The University has a generous maternity policy, onsite childcare facilities, and offers a range of benefits to help ensure employees’ well-being and work-life balance. The University of Southampton is committed to sustainability and has been awarded the Platinum EcoAward.
