Understanding the interaction between extended wind-farms and the atmosphere is crucial to predict wind-farm performance. High-fidelity scientific simulations are ideally suited to enhance our fundamental knowledge of this interaction, because simulations reveal the flow in the entire wind-farm and therefore important physical effects can be studied precisely and under controlled and reproducible conditions. In this project the candidate will use simulations to study the effect of important parameters such as the influence of atmospheric thermal stability, and changes in wind-direction and speed on wind-farm performance. Insight obtained from these simulations will be used to develop physics-based models that describe wind-farm power fluctuations and can help to develop and test innovative wind-farm control strategies. These types of detailed studies that can isolate and characterize important physical phenomena are critical for improving wind-farm design tools. In this work the candidate will use, and further develop, efficient computational methods to enable very high resolution simulations of large scale wind farms. This PhD project will focus on investigating the effects of the atmospheric thermal stability on the performance of extended wind-farms.

We seek highly talented, enthusiastic, and exceptionally motivated candidates with an MSc degree in Physics or engineering. The candidate must have strong communication skills, including fluency in written and spoken English. Experience with programming in C or Fortran is a plus. When fulfilling a PhD position at the NWO Institutes Organisation (formerly FOM), you will get the status of junior scientist. You will have an employee status and can participate in all the employee benefits NWO-I offers. You will get a contract for four years. Your salary will be up to a maximum of 2,834 euro gross per month.The salary is supplemented with a holiday allowance of 8 percent and an end-of-year bonus of 8.33 percent. You are supposed to have a thesis finished at the end of your four year term with NWO Institutes Organisation (NWO-I). A training programme is part of the agreement. You and your supervisor will make up a plan for the additional education and supervising that you specifically need. This plan also defines which teaching activities you will be responsible (up to a maximum of ten percent of your time). The conditions of employment of the NWO Institutes Organisation  are laid down in the Collective Labour Agreement for Research Centres (Cao-Onderzoekinstellingen), more exclusive information is available at this website under Personeelsinformatie (in Dutch) or under Personnel (in English).

Fixed-term contract: four years.

When fulfilling a PhD position at the NWO-I, the Institutes Organisation of NWO, you will get the status of junior scientist. You will have an employee status and can participate in all the employee benefits NWO-I offers. You will get a contract for four years. Your salary will be up to a maximum of 2,834 euro gross per month.The salary is supplemented with a holiday allowance of 8 percent and an end-of-year bonus of 8.33 percent. You are supposed to have a thesis finished at the end of your four year term with NWO Institutes Organisation (NWO-I). A training programme is part of the agreement. You and your supervisor will make up a plan for the additional education and supervising that you specifically need. This plan also defines which teaching activities you will be responsible (up to a maximum of ten percent of your time). The conditions of employment of the NWO Institutes Organisation  are laid down in the Collective Labour Agreement for Research Centres (Cao-Onderzoekinstellingen), more exclusive information is available at this website under Personeelsinformatie (in Dutch) or under Personnel (in English).

University of Twente

The work will be performed in the Physics of Fluids group at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. The research in this group covers a variety of aspects in fluid mechanics. The focus of our work is the fundamental understanding of the phenomena of the physics of uids, bubbles and turbulence, which we undertake by experimental, numerical and theoretical means. Within the group both fundamental and applied work, in close collaboration with industrial partners, is done. Our research is embedded in the MESA+ and MIRA Institutes in Twente and the J.M. Burgers Research Center for fluid mechanics (JMBC). The group receives external research funds from NWO-I, ERC, EU, STW, NWO, SenterNovem and several industrial partners. Further information can be found at: http://pof.tnw.utwente.nl and http://stilton.tnw.utwente.nl/people/stevensr