Research Fellow (Fire Engineering / Mechanical Engineering) Full-time

Research Fellow Position

Established in 2010, the Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N) is a pan-university research institute that focuses on systems-level research for tropical megacities. It performs translational research that covers the energy value chain from generation to innovative end-use solutions, motivated by industrialisation and deployment. ERI@N has multiple Interdisciplinary Research Programmes which focus on translational Research, Development & Deployment which focus on specific area of the energy value chain, and a number of Living labs and Testbeds which facilitate large scale technology deployment enabling validation and demonstration of real-world applications. For more details, please view NTU.

We are seeking a Research Fellow to lead the development and implementation of a coupled Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and fire dynamics model within the OpenFOAM framework. This model will simulate battery thermal runaway and subsequent fire propagation. The successful candidates will dedicate their efforts to the following specific research objectives: (1) Developing models for predicting the thermal runaway (TR), venting, and jet fire in a single cell with different cell characteristics by coupling the electro-chemical reaction, fluid, and combustion models. (2) Extending the single-cell model to predict the TRP in the battery pack considering the impact of jet fire with different battery pack features based on conjugate heat transfer (CHT) framework. (3) Developing the model to predict the fire propagation in EVs and PABs by coupling the CFD model and the semi-reduced-order model. (4) Developing software for transferring the modeling with a simplified User Interface.

Key Responsibilities:

• Actively support the Principal Investigator in project R&D, management, technology evaluation, project coordination, and stakeholder interfacing.
• Manage & conduct research on developing models for electric-vehicles (EVs), power-assisted bicycles (PABs) and related fires
• Manage & conduct research on model validation using burning test data
• Actively participate in the development of a software tool for modelling electric-vehicles (EVs), power-assisted bicycles (PABs) and related fires.
• Lead in preparation and submission of project reports, presentations, publications and materials for intellectual property (IP) applications.
• Tasks, including preparing slides for regular meetings with funding agency, executing budget virements and financial tracking, drafting and compiling interim and final project reports.
• Assist Principal Investigator to mentor junior research team members
• Regular reporting of research progress to the Principal Investigator
• Periodically provide updates on individual.

Job Requirements:

• PhD degree in fire engineering, mechanical engineering or a related field with a focus on fire dynamics, battery fire, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) etc.
• Familiarity with using OpenFOAM and Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) software.
• At least 1 year of relevant experience in similar role / technical hands-on experience in battery fire model development.
• Proficiency in C, C++ and Fortran etc., programming languages, numeric and analytical skill.
• Good written and oral communication skills.

We regret to inform that only shortlisted candidates will be notified.

Hiring Institution: NTU