PhD Studentship: Multi-body Hypersonic Aerodynamics

Funding for: British, USA or Australian nationals.

Funding amount: Sponsored by EPSRC, UK Ministry of Defence and Cranfield University, this studentship will provide a stipend of up to £24,000 (tax free) per annum plus fees for four years            

Closes: 23/10/2024

Supervisors: Professor David MacManus and Dr Panagiotis Tsoutsanis 

This is a full funded PhD (fees and bursary) in hypersonic aerodynamics in collaboration with EPSRC. The overall aim of the research is to investigate what are the aerodynamic interference characteristics, at hypersonic speeds, that are likely to adversely affect multibody separation. The research encompasses experimental and computational elements to evaluate the aerodynamics of multibody separation. Experiments using canonical configurations in the Cranfield hypersonic gun tunnel will statically represent the multi-body aerodynamics. The computational work will use Cranfield’s high-order UCNS3D code.to simulate hypersonic multi-body aerodynamic interactions and coupled trajectory modelling.

The development of UK sovereign hypersonic technologies and expertise are key considerations in the development of new air systems. A key challenge for some of envisaged air vehicle configurations and applications is the prediction and evaluation of multi-body aerodynamic characteristics and the impact on body trajectories. The overall aim of the research is to determine the aerodynamic interference conditions that are likely to adversely affect multibody separation at hypersonic speeds and will include both computational and experimental elements.

The experimental studies will investigate the multi-body aerodynamics of canonical configurations in the Cranfield hypersonic gun tunnel. The experiments will provide a range of flow visualisations and quantitative measurements for CFD validation. The computational research will include validation simulations of the experimental configurations as well as multi-body arrangements with coupled 6-DOF models over a range of hypersonic Mach numbers to predict the unsteady body trajectories and aerodynamic interactions. The computations will also explore Exascale-ready Discontinuous Galerkin/Finite Volume unstructured methods for hypersonic interactions using the Cranfield University high-order UCNS3D code.

The research is funded through EPSRC, UK MoD and Cranfield University. During the PhD programme the student is expected to participate in centralised training and cohort building activities which will be coordinated by the UK Hypersonic Technologies champion, based at the University of Oxford.

Entry Requirements

Applicants should have a first or second class UK honours degree or equivalent in a related discipline. This project would suit a student with an aerospace or mechanical engineering background. Experience of high-speed computational or experimental aerodynamics would be a distinct advantage. As part of this role you will be required to obtain UK Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) Security Clearance.

This studentship is restricted to British, USA or Australian nationals.

About the sponsor

Sponsored by Sponsored by EPSRC, UK Ministry of Defence and Cranfield University, this studentship will provide a stipend of up to £24,000 (tax free) per annum plus fees for four years.

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