PhD position in Fluid Mechanics research on stability and stirring by chaos in laminar flows

Hydrodynamic stability laboratory (StabiLab) at the Warsaw University of Technology is looking for a PHD student to work on the research project financed by the National Science Centre. The project concerns fundamental research on the topic of laminar mixing and chaotic advection triggered by hydrodynamic instabilities.

Key points of the planned research are:

  • Investigation and characterization of the onset of chaotic advection due to amplification of naturally occurring hydrodynamic instabilities that result from large-scale wall waviness.
  • Numerical and experimental investigations of the stability characteristics of flows through finite length and width, corrugated wall geometries.
  • Quantification of possible improvements of stirring and consequently mixing due to chaotic character of advection.

Prospective candidate should understand both computational and experimental methods of fluid dynamics, hold a master diploma in Mechanical Engineering, Mathematics, Physics or similar field. The candidate is expected to have the ability and willingness to learn and independently tackle arising research challenges. The candidate should be familiar with programming (C/C++, Python etc.) techniques, data processing methods and be ready to develop new or modify existing computational tools. Fluency in English is essential and ability to prepare publication material is a strong asset.

Project is funded by the National Science Centre (www.ncn.gov.pl). The work is to be performed under supervision of the PI Stanisław Gepner. Financing is secured for 36 months and amounts to around 1100 Euro per month, which is slightly above average income for the Warsaw city and about twice the standard PHD stipend for the Warsaw University of Technology. Additionally, selected candidate must take an interview and obtain a status of a PhD student at Doctoral School No 4 at Warsaw University of Technology

If you are interested please send your CV, academic transcript and a list of publications to Stanislaw Gepner (stanislaw.gepner@pw.edu.pl).

Application deadline: July 15’th 2020.

You can learn more on the topic of the research from the blog entry here and here and recent publications by the PI:

Gepner, S.W., Floryan, J.M. Use of Surface Corrugations for Energy-Efficient Chaotic Stirring in Low Reynolds Number Flows. Sci Rep 10, 9865 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-66800-5

S.W. Gepner, Nikesh Yadav, J. Szumbarski, Secondary flows in a longitudinally grooved channel and enhancement of diffusive transport, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 2020.

Euraxess: https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/535278