Single-turbine scale quantification of wake turbulence (Ref: AURA26-CK2)

About the Project

This PhD scholarship is offered by the EPSRC CDT in Offshore Wind Energy Sustainability and Resilience; a partnership between the Universities of Durham, Hull, Loughborough and Sheffield. The successful applicant will undertake six-months of training with the rest of the CDT cohort at the University of Hull before continuing their PhD research at Loughborough University.

Individual wind turbines produce turbulent wakes that have implications for maximum power generation from downwind turbines, increased fatigue loads and associated maintenance costs (Porté-Agel et al., 2020) . There are also associated environmental issues such as noise generation, and the introduction of large-scale flow structures to the atmospheric flow field. There have been a number of studies of these phenomena and Howard et al. (2015) and Kadum et al. (2019) have undertaken detailed studies of aspects of these dynamics. At the heart of this project is an attempt to develop deeper understanding of these phenomena in terms of the flow physics and to provide practical modelling methods that correctly represent these physics.

Of particular interest is the nature of the non-local energy transfers identified in the references cited above. Hence, this project will consider the non-equilibrium energy scaling for near-field wakes and how these effects can be captured in subgrid-scale models. Furthermore, we are interested in understanding how these non-local energy transfers relate to the behaviour of the flow’s pressure field, which provides another dimension to model development (Keylock, 2018).

Methodology:

The project will have three key stages to it:

1. direct numerical simulation of the Navier-Stokes equations for incompressible flow with a suitable forcing included to represent the turbines;
2. analysis of the large datasets that result, extracting and summarising the physics from the stored quantities;
3. formulation of large-eddy simulation parameterisations based on the outcomes of (a) and (b). A study making use of some of our concepts in this regard is that by Yu et al. (2021).

An aspect of the project will involve undertaking comparative numerical experiments with control for helicity/helicoidal wake generation (see Li et al., 2006).

An exciting potential dimension to this project is to link the numerical results to field experiments conducted at the University of Minnesota.

Entry requirements:

If you have received a First-class Honours degree, or a 2:1 Honours degree and a Masters, or a Distinction at Masters level with any undergraduate degree (or the international equivalents) in engineering, mathematics and statistics or physics, we would like to hear from you.

Applicants must meet the minimum English language requirements. Further details are available on the International website.

Funding information:

The studentship is for 4 years and provides a tax-free stipend of £21,805 per annum for the duration of the studentship plus tuition fees at the UK rate.

Due to UKRI funding rules, this studentship is only available to those eligible for UK fees. For full eligibility information, please refer to the EPSRC website.

Closing date of advert: 10th July 2026

Start date: October 2026

Full-time/part-time availability: Full-time 4 years, Part-time 8 years

Who is eligible to apply?: UK Only