PhD Studentship - High Speed Aerodynamic Assessment of Launcher Systems

Application deadline: All year round

Research theme: High speed aerodynamics

How to apply: uom.link/pgr-apply-fap

This 4 year PhD is fully funded for applicants eligible for UK home fees with tax free stipend at the standard UKRI rate (£19,237 for 2024/25).

This PhD project is part of the Rocketry Research, Teaching, and Training (R2T2) which is an integrated doctoral programme, run across eight UK universities, which seeks to provide the opportunity to pursue a PhD space launch technologies. The programme is fully funded, and a budget of approximately £50k will be available to support practical experiments which may include hotfire, cold-flow, wind tunnel experiments, or similar, according to the needs of the specific project. Where hotfire is indicated, technical oversight will be put in place and the use of the MachLab test site at Machrihanish Airbase will be offered, although not required. In addition, a practical and online training scheme will be put in place, designed to offer an introduction to the skills required in the space launch industry. These will likely include project management skills, propellant handling, gas/cryo safety, and many more. Parts of this training programme will be delivered at Westcott.

This specific project, at the University of Manchester, envisages a project based on high speed aerodynamics. To enable single stage to orbit (SSTO), airbreathing propulsion intakes are required at launch and through atmospheric flight. The stability and compression ratio of these intakes are critical to the performance of the vehicle and must be understood fully. However large velocity ranges and compressibility pose a challenge. Limitations in numerical modelling need to be supported by experiments in realistic flow fields. One of the key challenges in understanding and characterising these flows is the ability to simulate flow conditions both experimentally and numerically. The large velocity ranges, high levels of compressibility and complex three-dimensional flows around control surfaces and devices provide an extreme challenge to numerical models. Consequently the limitations in numerical modelling in this area need to be supported by experimental investigations carried out in static or ballistic tunnels. The development of suitable diagnostic and flow visualization techniques for such flows is required to fully characterize these flows.

Applicants should have, or expect to achieve, at least a 2.1 honours degree or a master’s (or international equivalent) in a relevant science or engineering related discipline.

Please contact the main supervisor, Dr Kate Smith, before you apply: kate.smith@manchester.ac.uk

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