PhD Fellow in Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Operation in icing Conditions

Changing Arctic Research School

UiT the Arctic University of Norway started a transdisciplinary research school "Changing Arctic" in August 2022, with PhD candidates and supervisors from all seven university faculties. The research school has a focus on renewable energy, food security, health and welfare. “Changing Arctic” will collaborate with actors in private and public sector. The research outcomes will contribute to resilience and transformation in the Arctic and will thus operationalize Sustainable Development Goals. The training will provide PhD candidates with knowledge, professional and transferable skills, and general competences that enables them to contribute to innovative and sustainable solutions for the Arctic. The research school will arrange courses, seminars, workshops, and excursions, and will organise secondments in private enterprises, NGOs, and public institutions. This is to ensure the relevance of project outcomes and enhance the employability of the PhD graduates. Read more about the research school Changing Arctic | UiT.

The position

The position is a fixed term position for a duration of four years. The nominal length of the PhD programme is three years. The fourth year is distributed as 25 % each year and will consist of teaching (10%) and other duties such as secondments and interactions with the industry or the public sector (15%). The objective of the position is to complete research training to the level of a doctoral degree. Admission to the PhD programme is a prerequisite for employment, and the programme period starts on commencement of the position.

The workplace is at UiT Campus Narvik. You must be able to start in the position within a reasonable time after receiving the offer. The Research School will start on the 1st of September 2024.

The position’s field of research

Despite the candidate is a member of the research school, they will be employed at the Department of Industrial Engineering, at the Faculty of Engineering Science and Technology. The candidate will work in Arctic Technology & Icing Research Group (arcICE).

Offshore wind energy can contribute significantly to reach the projected goal of EU 2030 about wind energy, where Wind Europe forecast 70 GW offshore wind capacity in the North Sea. There is a strong potential of development of offshore wind energy along Norwegian part of Arctic/North sea. To date, large scale offshore wind energy projects have not been deployed in Arctic region, but in near future, there are possibilities of such development. This raises the need for better understand the associated environmental risks and develop advanced technologies suitable for ice prone Arctic climate. Most of the existing offshore wind parks are installed in shallow waters, however, developments in new resource regions and smaller projects in floating offshore wind provide potential windows of opportunities. In cold regions like Arctic, future floating offshore wind parks can be built at the sites where the synergic effect of the meteorological conditions and sea processes of cold environment will pose important constraints for a cost effective and reliable development of the wind energy production. This PhD project aims to improve understanding of the aerodynamic and structural design of floating offshore wind turbines leading to improvements enabling optimal operations in ice prone Arctic regions.

It is expected that the PhD-candidate has prior knowledge about offshore wind turbine design/operations, aerodynamics, wind energy in cold climate & icing. This PhD research work will involve numerical simulations and lab/field experiments. Therefore, a good understanding of numerical modelling/ simulations aspects like structural design/analysis, computational fluid dynamics (icing/multiphase flow), icing tunnel tests is advantageous. PhD-candidate will also work transdisciplinary and collaborate with other PhD-candidates/projects within disciplines as renewable energy, cold climate and safety etc.

Contact

For further information about the position, please contact Professor Muhammad Shakeel Virk:

• email: muhammad.virk@uit.no