Doctoral student in Numerical simulations of turbulent heat transfer over rough surfaces Full-time NEW

Doctoral Student In Numerical Simulations Of Turbulent Heat Transfer Over Rough Surfaces

The doctoral student will be employed at the Department of Energy Sciences, Faculty of Engineering (LTH), Lund University, and will be part of the Division of Heat Transfer. The research environment conducts research in fluid mechanics, heat transfer and computational fluid dynamics, with particular emphasis on the numerical modelling and simulation of turbulent flows and engineering applications.

The aim of this doctoral project is to develop a deeper physical understanding of the interaction between surface roughness, turbulence and heat transfer, and to translate this understanding into improved engineering models. The research will primarily use high-fidelity numerical simulations, including Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) and Large Eddy Simulation (LES). Different CFD codes will be employed depending on the problem and required level of fidelity, including OpenFOAM, CaNS and nekRS. The simulations will make extensive use of modern high-performance computing resources based on both GPUs and CPUs.

The project will investigate how surface roughness influences turbulent flow and heat transfer for different fluids and thermal conditions. Particular attention will be given to the interaction between roughness geometry, turbulent structures, and the momentum and thermal boundary layers, including conditions in which the relative thicknesses of the thermal and momentum boundary layers differ. The high-fidelity simulation data will be used to identify relevant physical mechanisms and scaling relations and to support the development of reduced-order and engineering models for rough-surface heat transfer, including improved models and correlations suitable for Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) simulations.

The overall objective is to establish a connection between fundamental turbulence physics, high-fidelity numerical simulations and computational models that can be applied to engineering design. The project will be conducted in close collaboration with Siemens Energy AB, Ericsson AB, TRATON AB and RISE, providing opportunities for scientific exchange and interaction with researchers and engineers working on industrial applications of turbulent flow and heat transfer.