Development of power producing, heating and cooling strategies using deep geothermal wells

We are recruiting new Doctoral Researchers to our EPSRC funded Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) PhD studentships starting 1 October 2024. Applications are invited for the project title “Development of power producing, heating and cooling strategies using deep geothermal wells”.

Successful applicants will receive an annual stipend (bursary) of £21,237, including inner London weighting, plus payment of their full-time home tuition fees for a period of 42 months (3.5 years).

You should be eligible for home (UK) tuition fees. There are a very limited number (no more than three) of studentships available to overseas applicants, including EU nationals, who meet the academic entry criteria including English Language proficiency.

You will join the internationally recognised researchers in the Department of Mechanical Engineering research and PhD programmes | Brunel University London

The Project

Worldwide, closed-loop deep geothermal wells can provide a huge amount of heat with near zero emissions. They have an extremely small surface footprint and can be used for power production, heating or drying, heat storage and cooling applications. Suitability for these applications is dependent on a number of geological and design variables. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) will be used to quantify and optimise single and multiple well use and clearly identify usage cases and strategies, accelerating transition from fossil fuels. The project will be in collaboration with established industrial partners and within a vibrant research centre.

Please contact Dr James Tyacke at james.tyacke@brunel.ac.uk for an informal discussion about the studentships.

Eligibility

Applicants will have or be expected to receive a first or upper-second class honours degree in an Engineering, Computer Science, Design, Mathematics, Physics or a similar discipline. A Postgraduate Masters degree is not required but may be an advantage.

Skills and Experience

Applicants will be required to demonstrate the following skills;

An ability to setup and run a number of CFD and related numerical simulations.
An ability to process and analyse a range of data to optimise designs.
Experience in programming such as Python/Matlab/Fortran/C/C++ (not all are necessary).

You should be highly motivated, able to work independently as well as in a team, collaborate with others and have good communication skills.

How to apply

There are two stages of the application:

1.Applicants must submit the pre-application form via the following link

https://brunel.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/epsrc-dtp-24-25-pre-application-form-brunel-university-lon

by 16.00 on Friday 5th April 2024.

2.If you are shortlisted for the interview, you will be asked to email the following documentation in a single PDF file to cedps-studentships@brunel.ac.uk within 72hrs.

Your up-to-date CV;
Your Undergraduate degree certificate(s) and transcript(s) essential;
Your Postgraduate Masters degree certificate(s) and transcript(s) if applicable;
Your valid English Language qualification of IELTS 6.5 overall (minimum 6.0 in each section) or equivalent, if applicable;
Contact details for TWO referees, one of which can be an academic member of staff in the College.

Applicants should therefore ensure that they have all of this information in case they are shortlisted.

Interviews will take place in April/May 2024.

Meet the Supervisor(s)

James Tyacke - As Senior Lecturer in Aerospace Engineering, I am primarily interested in Large Eddy Simulation (LES) of complex flows including Urban Air Mobility Vehicles (Air Taxis), Jet Aeroacoustics, Turbomachinery, Electronics Cooling and Geothermal Energy. Multi-fidelity modelling underpins these areas, both in terms of turbulence modelling and geometry representation. Modern High Performance Computing (HPC) architectures are also being leveraged for both simulation and analysis of large data sets (Big Data), revealing unsteady flow physics. Further interests include increasing CFD automation, including mesh generation and optimisation, solution analysis and feedback into knowledge-based systems using Machine Learning and AI. I am currently looking for students to complete a PhD under EPSRC DTP funding at Brunel University London or those who are self-funded. A range of projects are possible, focusing on multi-fidelity Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Example projects: https://www.brunel.ac.uk/research/Research-degrees/PhD-Topics DTP funding details: https://www.brunel.ac.uk/research/Research-degrees/PhD-Studentships/Studentship?id=a2efbe35-b0b9-46a7-b284-3fd40ff05174 Research degree funding: https://www.brunel.ac.uk/research/Research-degrees/Research-degree-funding External funding: https://www.brunel.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-fees-and-funding/other-funding

Related Research Group(s)

Geotechnical and Environmental Engineering - Delivering a new understanding of our geo-environment and critical infrastructure in diverse ecosystems, for predicting and preventing catastrophic failure and responding to the need for decarbonisation and energy security.