PhD Position / Research Assistant Wind lidar techniques for analysing the flow physics of offshore wind farm clusters

ForWind – Center for Wind Energy Research has a vacancy in the research group »Wind Energy Systems« at the Institute of Physics of the University of Oldenburg starting as soon as possible for a

PhD Position / Research Assistant (f/m/d)
Wind lidar techniques for analysing the flow physics of offshore wind farm clusters
(E13 TV-L, 75 %)

Future energy systems will rely on large offshore wind farm clusters with hundreds of turbines. An enhanced understanding of the energy conversion process in such clusters under various meteorological and oceanographic conditions is crucial for the further expansion of offshore wind. There is a growing academic and industrial interest in utilising such knowledge for improved wind farm flow control, including power performance, load control, mitigation of wake losses, power forecasts, and auxiliary grid services. 

Job Description

Your main objective is to scientifically advance the application of scanning wind lidar (light detection and ranging) and develop and validate improvements in the design and operation of offshore wind energy systems. 

Among others, your tasks will comprise:

• analysing cluster wakes and mitigation strategies with scanning lidars at different meteorological conditions,
• developing lidar scanning strategies using virtual measurements in numerical wind fields,
• reconstructing wind fields in the inflow or within a wind farm from dispersed flow measurements,
• improving methods for the generation of synthetic turbulent wind fields and evaluation of these through wind turbine load simulations,
• cooperating closely with the wind farm operator and researchers performing high-fidelity simulations, developing engineering models and investigating satellite-based measurements,
• installing and operating wind lidars, as well as the realising measurement campaigns.

Job offer 

We offer you the opportunity to develop your scientific career in a young and lively academic environment. You will be working in the WindLab – one of the university's most modern office and lab spaces – while you will also have the opportunity to do flexible and mobile work. Your pathway towards the PhD is actively supported by, e.g., 

• multidisciplinary cooperation with other researchers at ForWind and Fraunhofer IWES in Oldenburg,
• direct collaboration with industry while maintaining the links with our national and international partners in academia,
• optional secondment at an international research institute,
• development of personal, scientific, and teaching skills through an individual training programme and selected teaching tasks,
• opportunities to present scientific results at international conferences and through peer-reviewed publications to extend your specific network,
• structured supervision of PhD process. 

The employment is initially limited to three years with an intention to further prolong up to four years to facilitate a PhD. The payment is based on the collective agreement for the public service in the German federal states, TV-L E13, for a 75% position.

Candidate profile

Requirements for employment include:

• a qualifying university master’s degree in physical sciences, Meteorology, Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering, Wind Energy, Remote Sensing or equivalent,
• aptitude and willingness to pursue a PhD,
• profound knowledge of at least two of the following three fields: experimental or numerical fluid dynamics, statistical analysis of large data amounts, measurement techniques,
• extensive experience in programming with at least Matlab or Python,
• high motivation and ability to jointly work on applied research topics,
• very good English skills,
• ability and experience working at heights. G41 height suitability must be proven before employment. The training courses can be made up/refreshed if necessary,
• driving licence BE

Desired (but not mandatory) qualifications are: 

• experience in the use and application of wind lidar,
• experience abroad of several months during the school, study period or employment after graduation
• and good German skills.

The University of Oldenburg strives to increase the proportion of women in science. Therefore, women are strongly encouraged to apply. In accordance with § 21, para. 3 NHG, female applicants will be given preferential consideration in the case of equivalent qualifications. Applicants with disabilities will be given preference in case of equal qualification. Further, the university cares for a family-friendly working environment and offers a family service centre and children's daycare on campus.

Research environment at ForWind – University of Oldenburg

Wind energy research at the University of Oldenburg has gained international recognition by its integration into ForWind – Center for Wind Energy Research of the Universities of Oldenburg, Hannover and Bremen and the national Wind Energy Research Alliance of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems (IWES) and ForWind. 

At ForWind, we maintain and value collaboration between our research groups and partner institutions such as the European Academy of Wind Energy members. In Oldenburg, our 50 researchers from physics, meteorology and engineering are collaborating at the »Research Laboratory for Turbulence and Wind Energy Systems« centred on wind physics. Our mission is to develop an improved understanding of atmospheric and wind power plant flow physics required to serve the global demand for clean and affordable electricity. Therefore, we conduct laboratory experiments, free-field measurements and HPC-based numerical simulations. The main topics include the description and modelling of wind turbulence, the analysis of interactions of turbulent atmospheric wind flow and wind energy systems, as well as control of wind turbines and wind farms. The covered scales range from small-scale turbulence up to meteorological phenomena. Our research facilities comprise three turbulent wind tunnels, various equipment for free-field measurements at on- and offshore wind farms and a high-performance computing cluster. Almost all our projects combine analyses at more than one of these infrastructures. For instance, virtual lidar measurements can be performed in simulated three-dimensional flow fields to verify the analysis algorithms. Our multi-lidar systems, equipped with up to three scanning lidars, are particularly important for the abovementioned research.

We are looking forward to receiving your application.

Contact:

For questions regarding this job opportunity, please contact Prof. Dr. Martin Kühn at +49(0)441/798-5061 or preferably by email at . Further information is available at www.forwind.de/en/ and https://uol.de/en/physics/research/we-sys.