PhD Position / Research Assistant (f/m/d) Interaction of wind turbine aeroelasticity with inflow and operating conditions

ForWind – Center for Wind Energy Research has a vacancy in the research group »Wind Energy Systems« at the Institute of Physics of the Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg starting as soon as possible for a

PhD Position / Research Assistant (f/m/d)
Interaction of wind turbine aeroelasticity with inflow and operating conditions
(E13 TV-L, 75 %)

Wind turbines operate in various inflow conditions, including shear, gusts and turbulence. Further, the turbine control interacts with the flow, leading to highly dynamic loading. The dynamic inflow effect describes the unsteady response of the flow to fast changes in rotor loading, e.g. due to fast (individual) blade pitching, rotor speed changes and gusts. This unsteady aerodynamic effect leads to load overshoots due to the inertia of the global flow field. The dynamic inflow effect has not been investigated systematically for large wind turbines, neither numerically nor experimentally, in controlled or open field conditions. This results in inaccuracies in current industrial design tools applying the Blade Element Momentum (BEM) approach. 

Job description

The main objective of your PhD project is to advance engineering models for a more accurate description of the interaction of inflow and operating conditions with rotor aerodynamics. 

Among others, your tasks will comprise:

• Analysis of validation data from scaled model wind turbine experiments in a wind tunnel and open field test data from a utility-size turbine 
• Cross-validation of measurements and dynamic inflow engineering models with an industrial design tool and a mid-fidelity simulation code 
• Assessment of improved engineering tools for the generic design of future large wind turbine rotors 
• Cooperating closely with a wind turbine manufacturer and international researchers.

Job offer 

We offer you the opportunity to develop your scientific career in a young and lively academic environment. You will be working in the WindLab – one of the university's most modern office and lab spaces – while you will also have the opportunity to do flexible and mobile work. Your pathway towards the PhD is actively supported by, e.g., 

• multidisciplinary cooperation with other researchers at ForWind and Fraunhofer IWES in Oldenburg,
• direct collaboration with industry while maintaining the links with our national and international partners in academia,
• optional secondment at an international research institute 
• development of personal, scientific, and teaching skills through an individual training programme and selected teaching tasks,
• opportunities to present scientific results at international conferences and through peer-reviewed publications to extend your specific network,
• structured supervision of PhD process. 

The employment is initially limited to three years, with an intention to extend it to up to four years to facilitate a PhD. The payment is based on the collective agreement for the public service in the German federal states, TV-L E13, for a 75% position.

Candidate profile

Requirements for employment include:

• a qualifying university master's degree in Mechanical, Aerospace or Naval Engineering, Physical Sciences, Wind Energy, Renewable Energy or equivalent, 
• aptitude and willingness to pursue a PhD with an experimental focus,
• profound knowledge of experimental or numerical fluid dynamics, 
• extensive experience in programming with at least Matlab or Python,
• high motivation and ability to jointly work on applied research topics,
• very good English skills.

Desired (but not mandatory) qualifications are: 

• experience abroad of several months during the school, study period or employment after graduation,
• and good German skills.

The Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg strives to increase the proportion of women in science. Therefore, women are strongly encouraged to apply. In accordance with § 21, para. 3 NHG, female applicants will be given preferential consideration in the case of equivalent qualifications. Severely disabled persons will be given preference in the case of equal suitability.

Further, the university cares for a family-friendly working environment and offers a family service centre and children's daycare on campus.

Research environment at ForWind – Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg

Wind energy research at the Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg has gained international recognition by its integration into ForWind – Center for Wind Energy Research of the Universities of Oldenburg, Hannover and Bremen and the national Wind Energy Research Alliance of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems (IWES) and ForWind. 

At ForWind, we maintain and value collaboration between our research groups and partner institutions such as the European Academy of Wind Energy members. In Oldenburg, our 50 researchers from physics, meteorology and engineering are collaborating at the WindLab centred on wind physics. Our mission is to develop an improved understanding of atmospheric and wind power plant flow physics required to serve the global demand for clean and affordable electricity. Therefore, we conduct laboratory experiments, free-field measurements and HPC-based numerical simulations. We have direct access to the DLR research wind farm WiValdi (https://windenergy-researchfarm.com). At this internationally outstanding infrastructure for wind energy research, the interaction of atmospheric wind fields with two utility-scale wind turbines can be investigated to an unprecedented extent.

The main topics include the description and modelling of wind turbulence, the analysis of interactions of turbulent atmospheric wind flow and wind energy systems, as well as control of wind turbines and wind farms. The covered scales range from small-scale turbulence up to meteorological phenomena. Our research facilities comprise three turbulent wind tunnels, various equipment for free-field measurements at on- and offshore wind farms and a high-performance computing cluster. Almost all our projects combine analyses at more than one of these infrastructures. 

Contact

For questions regarding this job opportunity, please contact Prof. Dr. Martin Kühn at +49(0)441/798-5061 or preferably by email at martin.kuehn@uol.de. Further information is available at www.forwind.de/en/ and https://uol.de/en/physics/research/we-sys. 

Please submit your application electronically as one PDF file by 06.10.2024 to wesys.bewerbungen@uni-oldenburg.de and include reference #AC105.

The pdf file must include either in English or German:

• A letter motivating your application
• Curriculum vitae 
• Grade transcripts and BSc/MSc diploma
• Employment references
• A one-page research statement. You are requested to present your notion of the field of the advertised PhD topic and some initial ideas for tackling it. 

A second PDF file containing your Master Thesis or relevant research papers (if available) is an optional attachment.

We are looking forward to receiving your application.