PhD Studentship: Transforming Computational Fluid Dynamics Meshing through AI

Join a world-leading, cross-continental research team

The University of Exeter and the University of Queensland are seeking exceptional students to join a world-leading, cross-continental research team tackling major challenges facing the world’s population in global sustainability and wellbeing as part of the QUEX Institute. The joint PhD programme provides a fantastic opportunity for the most talented doctoral students to work closely with world-class research groups and benefit from the combined expertise and facilities offered at the two institutions, with a lead supervisor within each university. This prestigious programme provides full tuition fees, stipend, travel funds and research training support grants to the successful applicants.  The studentship provides funding for up to 42 months (3.5 years).

Eight generous, fully-funded studentships are available for the best applicants, four offered by the University of Exeter and four by the University of Queensland. This select group will spend at least one year at each University and will graduate with a joint degree from the University of Exeter and the University of Queensland.

Find out more about the PhD studentships click here

Successful applicants will have a strong academic background and track record to undertake research projects based in one of the three themes of:  Healthy Living, Global Environmental Futures and Digital Worlds and Disruptive Technologies.

The closing date for applications is mid-day Friday June 28th 2024 (BST), with interview to be w/c 29th July 2024 (tbc). The start date is expected to be Monday January 6th 2025.

Please note that of the eight Exeter led projects advertised, we expect that up to four studentships will be warded to Exeter based students.

THEME - Digital Worlds & Disruptive Technologies

Project Description

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is a key element of modern engineering R&D and of digital engineering processes in Industry4.0. In a CFD code, the fundamental equations of fluid flow are discretised and solved numerically; this process of discretisation involves splitting the domain of interest into subdomains called cells, which make up the mesh covering the domain. The process of creating this mesh, referred to as meshing, is one of the most critical steps in the CFD workflow, as the quality of the numerical solution (and sometimes even the ability of the CFD code to find a solution) can be very strongly dependent on the quality of the mesh. At the same time, the meshing process itself is complex and often involves considerable human time and expertise to accomplish. Automated meshing programmes (such as snappyHexMesh, sHM, from the OpenFOAM suite of CFD codes) have been developed, but these simply automate the construction of the mesh from a large number of input parameters; finding the correct inputs is still complex and (human-)time consuming.

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