Doctoral student on air-water flow for hydropower spillway discharge safety

KTH, School of Architecture and Built Environment

Project description

Third-cycle subject: Civil and Architectural Engineering, with specialization in Concrete Structures

The division for Concrete Structures at KTH Civil and Architectural Engineering is in search for a doctoral student to be assigned a project on hydraulic design of structures within hydropower.

Many dam facilities have been rebuilt or are to be upgraded to achieve a higher level of safety. It is important to understand the functions of spillways at extreme discharges.

To achieve discharge safety, it is required that numerical CFD simulation provides credible results. The project consists of modelling two-phase flow in spillways, where the flow velocity often exceeds 20-25 m/s.

The project is part of a national research program within the hydropower area called SVC-Swedish Centre for Sustainable Hydropower.

The research is carried out together with senior researchers at KTH and in interdisciplinary research collaboration with international researchers and industry partners.

The aim is through adaptation of turbulence and air-water models and against laboratory data to investigate the reliability of two-phase modelling approaches and, and thereby ensuring quality and trust in CFD modelling.

To provide best-practice recommendations in modelling procedures for safe discharge of spillway flows, in which air entrainment, flow forces, safety margins, erosion risks etc. are safety concerns is also part of the project. One of the goals is to help improve hydraulic design of spillways in upgrade/refurbishment projects.

Supervision: Professor Anders Ansell and PhD James Yang is proposed to supervise the doctoral student. Decisions are made on admission.

What offer

The possibility to study in a dynamic and international research environment in collaboration with industries and prominent universities from all over the world.Read more

⚫ A workplace with many employee benefits and monthly salary according to KTH’s Doctoral student

salary agreement. A postgraduate education at an institution that is active and supportive in matters pertaining to working conditions, gender equality and diversity as well as study environment.

⚫ Help to relocate and be settled in Sweden and at KTH.

Admission requirements

To be admitted to postgraduate education (Chapter 7, 39 § Swedish Higher Education Ordinance), the applicant must have basic eligibility in accordance with either of the following:

⚫ passed a second cycle degree (for example a master’s degree), or ⚫ completed course requirements of at least 240 higher education credits, of which at least 60 second-

cycle higher education credits, or

⚫ acquired, in some other way within or outside the country, substantially equivalent knowledge In addition to the above, there is also a mandatory requirement for English equivalent to English B/6,

Selection

In order to succeed as a doctoral student at KTH you need to be goal oriented and persevering in your work. During the selection process, candidates will be assessed upon their ability to:

⚫ independently pursue his or her work

⚫ collaborate with others,

⚫ have a professional approach and ⚫ analyse and work with complex issues.

After the qualification requirements, great emphasis will be placed on personal competency.

We will especially welcome applicants with exams that covers the areas of hydraulics, concrete structures and structural mechanics, also with experiences from hydraulic model tests, and from using CFD and/or FEM software for advanced analysis.

The position can require that the candidate have to go through a security vetting process.

Target degree: Doctoral degree

Information regarding admission and employment

Only those admitted to postgraduate education may be employed as a doctoral student. The total length of employment may not be longer than what corresponds to full-time doctoral education in four years’ time. An employed doctoral student can, to a limited extent (maximum 20%), perform certain tasks within their role, eg, training and administration. A new position as a doctoral student is for a maximum of one year, and then the employment may be renewed for a maximum of two years at a time.

Union representatives

You will find contact information for union representatives on KTH’s website.

Doctoral section (Students’ union on KTH Royal Institute of Technology)

You will find contact information for doctoral section on the section’s website.

Application

Apply for the position and admission through KTH’s recruitment system. It is the applicant’s responsibility to ensure that the application is complete in accordance with the instructions in the advertisement.

Applications must be received at the last closing date at midnight, CET/CEST (Central European Time/ entral European Summer Time).

Applications must include the following elements:

CV including your relevant professional experience and knowledge.

⚫ Application letter with a brief description of why you want to pursue research studies, about what

your academic interests are and how they relate to your previous studies and future goals. (Maximum 2 pages long)

⚫Copies of diplomas and grades from previous university studies and certificates of fulfilled language requirements (see above). Translations into English or Swedish if the original document is not issued in one of these languages.Copies of originals must be certified.

•Representative publications or technical reports. For longer documents, please provide a summary (abstract) and a web link to the full text.

Other information

Striving towards gender equality, diversity and equal conditions is both a question of quality for KTH and a given part of our values.

For information about processing of personal data in the recruitment process please read here.

We firmly decline all contact with staffing and recruitment agencies and job ad salespersons.

Disclaimer. In case of discrepancy between the Swedish original and the English translation of the job announcement, the Swedish version takes precedence.