Our ice mechanics group at Aalto University (Finland) is looking for a PhD-student to work on offshore wind in cold sea areas. We will use discrete element method to study how drifting sea ice affects an offshore wind farm and how the wind farm affects the sea ice surrounding it.
The work includes developing and combining sea ice models for different scales. Goal is to link an engineering-scale sea ice model for ice-structure interaction (tens to hundreds of meters in scale) with a local-scale sea ice model describing the icy marine environment (kilometers to tens of kilometers). You will modify and use existing finite-discrete element (FEM-DEM) simulation tools and work in close collaboration with FMI for larger scale modeling. Aim is to understand how sea ice behaves in the vicinity and inside of an offshore wind farm and to estimate ice loads on wind turbines. Goal is to also understand how an offshore wind farm affects sea ice behavior around the farm. The study accounts for ice conditions affected by climate change; you will work in a multi-disciplinary project.
The research performed is mostly computational, thus, the applicant should have good understanding of solid and computational mechanics and good programming skills.
Here's more details and instructions on how to apply: