A PhD position is now open at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, section of Fluid Mechanics, Coastal and Maritime Engineering (FVM). The position is available for 3 years.

Project description
The scholarship will play an integral part of the project:MERMAID, Innovative Multi-purpose offshore platforms: Planning Design and operation, financed by the EU-commission through the 7^th frame programme under the call “Ocean of Tomorrow”. The project is a corporation between 28 partners, universities, companies and research institutes, in and outside EU. The background for the project is the extensive development of coastal and offshore areas due to implementation of offshore wind turbines, aquaculture, transportation facilities and assessment of environmental impact. The PhD scholarship deals with wave and current interaction with structures or structural parts of the multi-use platform. The term multi-use platform means a combined use of the same area for offshore wind turbines, aquaculture and other types of facilities. DTU is coordinating the project. Read more about the project at: www.mermaidproject.eu/.

Responsibililties and tasks
Full coupled structural/hydrodynamic model for flexible offshore structures
The load on a flexible offshore structure, such as a fish cage, is a critical parameter for optimizing cost-efficient designs for offshore sites. To this end a combination of numerical modelling and in-situ monitoring will quantify the loads. Proposed designs consist of for instance fish cages, which can be described as flexible and moving elements with a specified porosity to allow description of the drag forces and hence the extreme loads. To support design, a CFD solver will be developed and setup to determine extreme wave and current load calculations for the structural elements. Modelled loads will be calibrated against data collected by load cells measuring actual forces on a structure deployed at a site.

In this project the basic concepts of these models have to be developed in order to be able to analyse the dynamics of flexible structures at open sea. A basic structural model of the structure will be developed either from scratch or in continuation of a previous developed model. The structural model outlined above will be coupled with a CFD model that models the wave and currents. In this part the focus will be on the more extreme wave and current environment present at offshore sites.

The model will be tested by comparisons towards a combination of experimental data in the open literature, physical model tests carried out at DTU. Further data from in-situ tests of a fish cage will be brought into the project.

Qualifications
The successful candidates should have a master’s degree in hydraulic or coastal engineering with experience, preferably at the Master Thesis level, on some of the following subjects; wave-structure interaction, free-surface flows, numerical analyses, and physical model tests. Both newly graduated as well as candidates from industry are welcome to apply for the positions.

The scholarship for the PhD degree is subject to academic approval and the candidates will be enrolled in one of the general degree programmes of DTU. For information about the general requirements for enrolment and the general planning of the scholarship studies, please see the DTU PhD Guide.

We offer
We offer an interesting and challenging job in an international environment focusing on education, research, public-sector consultancy and innovation, which contribute to enhancing the economy and improving social welfare. We strive for academic excellence, collegial respect and freedom tempered by responsibility. The Technical University of Denmark (DTU) is a leading technical university in northern Europe and benchmarks with the best universities in the world.

Salary and appointment terms
The salary and appointment terms are consistent with the current rules for PhD students at DTU. The period of employment is 3 years.

Candidates may apply prior to obtaining their master’s degree, but cannot start the PhD studies before the master’s degree has been received.

Further information
Further questions about the projects should be directed to Professor Erik Damgaard Christensen, e-mail:edch@mek.dtu.dk.

Please do not send applications to this e-mail address, instead apply online as described below.

You can read more about Department of Mechanical Engineering on www.mek.dtu.dk and about the Fluid Mechanics, Coastal, and Maritime Engineering Section on www.fvm.mek.dtu.dk/English.aspx.

Application
We must have your online application by the 15^th of March 2013.

Applications must be submitted as one pdf file containing all materials to be given consideration. To apply, please open the link « Apply online, » fill in the online application form, and attach all your materials in English in one pdf file. The file must include:

• A letter motivating the application (cover letter)
• Curriculum vitae
• Grade transcripts and BSc/MSc diploma
• Excel sheet with translation of grades to the Danish grading system (see guidelines and excel spreadsheet here)

All interested candidates irrespective of age, gender, race, disability, religion or ethnic background are encouraged to apply.

DTU Mechanical Engineering covers the fundamental engineering disciplines within Naval Architecture and Offshore Engineering, Energetics, Solid Mechanics, Fluid Mechanics, Thermodynamics, Control and Engineering Design, Hydrodynamics, Structural Engineering and Materials. It has a scientific staff of about 100 persons, 100 PhD students and a technical/administrative support staff of 80 persons.