The Laboratory of Combustion and Acoustics for Power System (CAPS) at the Swiss Federal

Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH) is seeking a candidate for a

PhD position on Thermoacoustic Instabilities in Annular

Combustion Chambers
This Ph.D. position is part of an EU H2020 funded project.The context of the project is the problem of
thermoacoustic instabilities in gas turbine combustion chambers which slows down the development of
cleaner combustion technologies for power generation and aerial transport. In a nutshell, the unsteady
heat release of the flames acts a source term in the acoustic wave equation. Since the acoustic field can
also influence the flames, thermoacoustic limit cycles can develop in the chamber. The resulting intense
acoustic fields induce mechanical vibrations, which decrease the lifetime of the mechanical parts or lead
to sudden catastrophic failures. This problem becomes more and more important nowadays because we
try to decrease pollutant emissions with flames that are unfortunately more prone to these thermoacoustic
instabilities.
The project will deal with the modeling and control of thermoacoustic instabilities in annular combustion
chambers for aeroengines and gas turbines. The work will be mainly experimental and theoretical. Large
Eddy Simulations of relevant flow configurations may also complement the experimental and numerical
analysis. More specifically, we will 1) investigate symmetry breaking bifurcations and synchronization
phenomena of these nonlinearly coupled thermoacoustic modes in presence of additive and
multiplicative stochastic forcing, 2) develop new passive control devices to prevent these limit cycles to
establish in the combustion chambers. The output of the project will be compared to the ones of other
researchers participating to the network.

Your qualifications should include a master level university degree in engineering, physic or
mathematical with excellent grades. Excellent command of English is required. Your employment will be
contracted according to standard regulations at ETH (funding secured for 3 years). The project will start in
January 2018 or upon mutual agreement. Important information: Candidates can be of any nationality.
The candidate must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies) in Switzerland for
more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the recruitment date.

We look forward to receiving your online application including a letter of motivation addressed to Prof.
Dr. Nicolas Noiray, a CV, your transcript of records and two reference letters. Applications will be
accepted until the position is filled. Please note that we exclusively accept applications submitted through
our online application portal. Applications via email or postal services will not be considered.
For further information about the laboratory please visit our website http://www.caps.ethz.ch. Questions
regarding the position should be directed to Ms Anna Michailidis, by email mianna@ethz.ch (no
applications).

Apply now