The postdoc position is available in the Power and Flow section, and is part of a collaborative project financed by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency. The project has a main industrial partner and is combined with research at Delft University. The postdoc will be supervised by
dr. Rob Bastiaans and prof. Jeroen van Oijen (https://www.tue.nl/en/research/research-groups/power-flow/).

Research goals 

The major objective of the project is to validate the low emission gas turbine combustor design, targeting the full retrofit Frame5 GT engine operations in the future, for fuel flexible operation from 100% Natural Gas to 100% Hydrogen and any mixture thereof at low emissions level. Combustion rig tests will be involved to validate the design. The project is one key step to enable the gas turbines in the industry to use green hydrogen with all possible H2 proportion in the fuel while fulfilling the environmental emission requirement. The project will promote the utilization of green hydrogen as the mean for the large-scale storage and conversion from green electricity (solar and wind) to other energy carriers and / or products. Challenges to operation on these highly reactive hydrogen mixtures, including emissions compliance, combustion dynamics and stability must be addressed. In collaboration with TU Delft, performing measurements to establish a flash back model, at TU/e relatively cheap numerical simulation strategies must be researched to provide the possibility of fast alternative design evaluations.

We are looking for a highly experienced candidate with a PhD degree in mechanical engineering, physics, applied mathematics or similar. The candidate should have thorough knowledge of transport phenomena, thermodynamics, reactive flows, CFD methods (preferably OpenFoam and or ANSYS Fluent), combined with strong programming and mathematical skills and a good physics intuition. The ideal candidate has excellent scientific skills as well as outstanding verbal and written communication skills.

• A full-time job for 1 year in a highly motivated team in a dynamic and ambitious university with the possibility to present your work at international conferences. You will be part of a large-scale multidisciplinary European collaboration project where expertise of a variety of disciplines comes together. The TU/e is located in one of the smartest regions of the world and part of the European technology hotspot 'Brainport Eindhoven'; well-known because of many high-tech industries and start-ups. A place to be for talented scientists!
• You will have free access to high-quality training programs on general skills, didactics and topics related to research and valorization.
• A gross monthly salary and benefits in accordance with the Collective Labor Agreement for Dutch Universities.
• A broad package of fringe benefits (including an excellent technical infrastructure, moving expenses, and savings schemes).
• Assistance for finding accommodation can be given.
• Family-friendly initiatives are in place, such as an international spouse program, and excellent on-campus children day care and sports facilities.