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CFD Jobs Database - Job Record #19526

Job Record #19526
TitleModels for aeroelastic response of wind turbines
CategoryJob in Academia
EmployerForWind - Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg
LocationGermany, Lower Saxony, Oldenburg
InternationalYes, international applications are welcome
Closure DateMonday, January 20, 2025
Description:
PhD Position / Research Assistant (f/m/d)
Enhanced engineering models for aeroelastic response of wind turbines

Enhanced aeroelastic models are required for designing future wind turbines operating in various inflow 
conditions, including shear, gusts and turbulence. The dynamic inflow effect describes the unsteady 
response of the flow to fast changes in rotor loading, e.g. due to control actions or gusts. The associated 
unsteady aerodynamics and load effects have not been investigated systematically for large wind turbines, 
neither numerically nor experimentally. Therefore, a combination of wind tunnel experiments, free-field 
tests and numerical simulations are proposed to fill this gap.

Job description
Through your extensive knowledge of fluid dynamics and the available experimental facilities, your PhD 
project will lead to a better understanding of the interaction of inflow and operating conditions with rotor 
aerodynamics and, thus, to more accurate engineering models. 
Among others, your tasks will comprise:
•	Design, execution and analysis of experiments in the wind tunnel and on a utility-size turbine to 
capture dynamic inflow effects.
•	Improved parameterisation of engineering models for dynamic inflow effects and their integration in 
standard industrial models.
•	Cross-validation of measurements and dynamic inflow engineering models with an industrial design 
tool and a mid-fidelity simulation code 
•	Assessment of improved engineering tools for the generic design of future large wind turbine rotors 
•	Cooperating closely with a wind turbine manufacturer and international researchers.

Job offer
We offer you the opportunity to develop your scientific career in a young and lively academic environment. 
You will be working in the WindLab – one of the university's most modern office and lab spaces – while 
you will also have the opportunity to do flexible and mobile work. Your pathway towards the PhD is actively 
supported by, e.g., 
•	multidisciplinary cooperation with other researchers at ForWind and Fraunhofer IWES in Oldenburg,
•	direct collaboration with industry while maintaining the links with our national and international 
partners in academia,
•	optional secondment at an international research institute 
•	development of personal, scientific, and teaching skills through an individual training programme and 
selected teaching tasks,
•	opportunities to present scientific results at international conferences and through peer-reviewed 
publications to extend your specific network,
•	structured supervision of PhD process. 
The employment is initially limited to three years, with an intention to extend it to up to four years to 
facilitate a PhD. The payment is based on the collective agreement for the public service in the German 
federal states, TV-L E13, for a 75% position.
Further benefits
•	Secure remuneration according to collective agreement
•	30 days vacation
•	Company pension scheme
•	Further training opportunities
•	Flexible working hours
•	Health management
•	Mobile working
•	Compatibility of career and family
•	Support with childcare
•	University Sports Centre

Candidate profile
Requirements for employment include:
•	a qualifying university master's degree in Mechanical, Aerospace or Naval Engineering, Physical 
Sciences, Wind Energy, Renewable Energy or equivalent, 
•	aptitude and willingness to pursue a PhD with experimental contributions,
•	profound knowledge of experimental or numerical fluid dynamics, 
•	extensive experience in programming with at least Matlab or Python,
•	high motivation and ability to jointly work on applied research topics,
•	very good English skills.
Desired (but not mandatory) qualifications are: 
•	experience abroad of several months during the school, study period or employment after graduation,
•	and good German skills.
The University of Oldenburg is dedicated to increase the percentage of female employees in the field of 
science. Therefore, female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply. In accordance to § 21 Section 3 
NHG, female candidates with equal qualifications will be preferentially considered. Applicants with 
disabilities will be given preference in case of equal qualification.

Research environment at ForWind – Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg
Wind energy research at the Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg has gained international recognition 
by its integration into ForWind – Center for Wind Energy Research of the Universities of Oldenburg, 
Hannover and Bremen and the national Wind Energy Research Alliance of the German Aerospace Center 
(DLR), Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems (IWES) and ForWind. 
At ForWind, we maintain and value collaboration between our research groups and partner institutions 
such as the European Academy of Wind Energy members. In Oldenburg, our 50 researchers from physics, 
meteorology and engineering are collaborating at the WindLab centred on wind physics. Our mission is to 
develop an improved understanding of atmospheric and wind power plant flow physics required to serve 
the global demand for clean and affordable electricity. Therefore, we conduct laboratory experiments, 
free-field measurements and HPC-based numerical simulations. We have direct access to the DLR 
research wind farm WiValdi (https://windenergy-researchfarm.com). At this internationally outstanding 
infrastructure for wind energy research, the interaction of atmospheric wind fields with two utility-scale 
wind turbines can be investigated to an unprecedented extent.
The main topics include the description and modelling of wind turbulence, the analysis of interactions of 
turbulent atmospheric wind flow and wind energy systems, as well as control of wind turbines and wind 
farms. The covered scales range from small-scale turbulence up to meteorological phenomena. Our 
research facilities comprise three turbulent wind tunnels, various equipment for free-field measurements 
at on- and offshore wind farms and a high-performance computing cluster. Almost all our projects 
combine analyses at more than one of these infrastructures.
Further information is available at www.forwind.de/en/ and https://uol.de/en/physics/research/we-sys.

Contact
For questions regarding this job opportunity, please contact Prof. Dr. Martin Kühn at +49(0)441/798-5061 
or preferably by email at martin.kuehn@uol.de 
Please submit your application electronically as one PDF file by 20.01.2025 to wesys.bewerbungen@uni-
oldenburg.de and include reference #CFD112.
The pdf file must include either in English or German:
•	A letter motivating your application
•	Curriculum vitae 
•	A one-page research statement. You are requested to present your notion of the field of the 
advertised PhD topic and some initial ideas for tackling it. 
•	Grade transcripts and BSc/MSc diploma
•	Employment references
A second PDF file containing your Master Thesis or relevant research papers (if available) is an optional 
attachment.
We are looking forward to receiving your application.

Contact Information:
Please mention the CFD Jobs Database, record #19526 when responding to this ad.
NameProf. Dr. Martin Kuehn
Emailwesys.bewerbungen@uni-oldenburg.de
Email ApplicationYes
URLhttps://uol.de/we-sys
Addresswesys.bewerbungen@uni-oldenburg.de
Record Data:
Last Modified23:50:03, Tuesday, January 07, 2025

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