A step ahead for your future in a beautiful country. Norway is one of the beautiful coutry and here PhD postion gives you a special moment in your life.

With about 17,500 students, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences is one of the largest higher education institutions in Norway. A broad range of academic programmes are offered at Bachelor, Master and PhD levels, spread out on five campuses Førde, Sogndal, Bergen, Stord og Haugesund.

Our ambition is to build stronger and more solid academic and research environments that will interact nationally and internationally. The aim is to become a recognized actor on the international higher education arena. Increased international cooperation and engagement in externally funded projects will work towards this goal.

The Faculty of Engineering and Science has approximately 370 employees and approximately 3,260 students. The faculty has a broad educational offer at both bachelor’s and master’s level in engineering and science, as well as PhD education in computer technology. The Mohns Center for Innovation and Regional Development researches innovation and offers master’s education in innovation and entrepreneurship. The diving education offers a one-year vocational school education.

The main part of the faculty’s activities are in Haugesund, Bergen, Sogndal and Førde, but we also offer decentralized education in Florø, Kristiansund and Stord.

The faculty’s activities are internationally based and take place in close collaboration with regional companies, clusters, health trusts and the public sector, including other institutions in the university and college sector. This applies to research, development, innovation and not least education with student projects at all levels.

The Department of Mechanical and Marine Engineering has 40 employees. More than 70% of the academic staff have first competence, of which 7 are professors. The department has about 600 students and educates engineers and civil engineers. There are 5 educational programs offered at bachelor level (general machinery, marine engineering, production engineering, energy technology and marine technology) and 3 at master’s level (underwater technology, energy and marine technology). R&D work in energy, materials technology and marine technology is conducted at the department. The department has modern laboratories with, among other things, Marinlab for testing boats and offshore structures. Great emphasis is placed on developing the content of our study programs in close collaboration with the public and private business community, which are buyers of our engineers.

About the position:

Western Norway University of Applied Sciences has a vacancy for a Ph.D.-scholarship in Marine Technology. The position is part of the research project “HYDROMORE”, financed by the Research Council of Norway, with research partners at The University of Manchester (UK), University of Oslo and SINTEF Ocean. The position is for a fixed-term period of 3 years.

The Ph.D candidate will be part of the Wind, Water and Waves research group in the Department of Mechanical and Marine Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering and Science.

Main intended workplace is at campus Bergen. Enrolment onto a qualifying PhD programme may require temporary secondment at one or more of the partnering research institutions.

About the PhD project:

HYDROMORE seeks to establish new best-practice approaches for designing future mooring systems used in floating ocean renewable energy devices. This will ultimately enable the design of leaner and safer mooring solutions and reduce the cost of energy from these technologies.

A major obstacle to minimise cost of electricity from both floating wind and wave energy, is the mooring system cost. Traditional moorings are heavy and designed using methods suitable for large floating oil rigs, but not for small, dynamic floating wind structures or wave energy converters. Mooring forces are influenced by low-frequency effects, such as slow drift and the interaction of variable wind and wave conditions, coupled with structure response and adaptive control systems. These interactions are not readily assessed using high fidelity methods, such as computational fluid dynamics (CFD). As such, there is a knowledge-gap between fast, low-fidelity methods and slow, high-fidelity methods. Hence the design of leaner, more advanced mooring solutions is restricted.

Through four work-packages, HYDROMORE will address this knowledge-gap, to accurately model nonlinear and irregular seas, whilst allowing rapid evaluation of multiple design condition parameters. HYDROMORE will assess reliability and limitations of state-of-the-art methods for accurate hydrodynamic modelling over long-periods, as well as highly nonlinear breaking waves. Methods for modelling the combined effects of aerodynamic loading, e.g., a turbine moving in and out of its own wake, with hydrodynamics will also be studied. All modelling will be validated against controlled laboratory-scale tests to help inform new industry standards.

The focus of this PhD position will be Experimental validation of linear and nonlinear hydrodynamic modelling.

Qualifications:

• A master’s degree within one of the disciplines of Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Naval Architecture/Ocean Engineering, or Applied Mathematics. The degree must include specialisation within either Marine Structures, Marine Hydrodynamics or Fluid Mechanics and score an average equivalent grade B on the ECTS grading system.
• Foreign completed degrees (M.Sc.-level) must correspond to a minimum of four years in the Norwegian educational system.
• The master’s thesis must be within one, or preferably several of the following fields: Hydrodynamics, Marine Hydrodynamics, Marine Structures, or Ocean Renewable Energy.
• The grade for the master’s thesis must be equivalent to a minimum of grade B on the ECTS grading system.
• An average equivalent ECTS grade C at BSc-level.
• Fluent oral and written communication skills in English language.
• The fellowship requires admission onto the University of Oslo PhD programme at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences (or appropriate equivalent). The application to the PhD programme must be submitted no later than two months after taking up the position. For more information see:

Wanted qualifications:

The following qualifications will be considered when ranking candidates, in order of importance:

• Experimental hydrodynamics testing experience from the MSc degree. Directly relevant experimental experience from industry and BSc-level may also be considered.
• Knowledge and experience of working with time-domain hydrodynamic computational codes, e.g. SIMA, openFAST, OrcaFlex, etc.
• Excellent level of spoken and written English
• Number of peer-reviewed publications.
• Practical mechanical workshop skills and Computer-aided design software.
• Computer programming experience.
• Experience of nonlinear modelling, for example in OpenFOAM, Basilisk, or OceanWave3D.

Personal qualifications:

• Ability to work in a team
• Good communication skills
• High work capacity
• Solution oriented.

In addition to the required educational qualifications, the following criteria will be evaluated: competence and grades on completed course work, quality of the master’s thesis (excellent grade, equivalent of grade B or better on the ECTS grading system), laboratory research experience, publications (if any), communication skills, and engineering skills.

The candidate must be diligent and display the ability to work independently, supplemented with regular guidance, and is expected to carry out high-quality research and to publish the results in national seminars, international workshops, conferences, and journals.

The PhD candidates will be assigned academic supervisors at both Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL) and University of Oslo. An application for enrolment onto the University of Oslo PhD programme at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences (or appropriate equivalent) should first be submitted after an appointment is made and the supervisor(s) will help with this procedure. The application to the PhD programme must be submitted to the department no later than two months after taking up the position.

Start your application Here