Bachelor and Master Projects
For excellent students we also offer projects which should lead to journal publications.
The chair of Fluid Dynamics also supports students who want to arrange their projects in cooperation with industry - provided that there are no non-disclosure agreements.
To top students, we also offer external Master’s projects with friends and colleagues at other universities, for example in Trondheim (Norway), Newcastle (UK) or Berkeley (US). Some prior work as a HiWi with us is a prerequisite, so we can make sure to only send out excellent students.
Master and Diploma Projects which should lead to publications
211214: Master Project: Image reconstruction from (blurred) movies
The project aims to reconstruct "sharp“ images from a series of blurred images (e.g. video). Applications include the identification of car registration plates from blurred (police or dash-cam) movies, "night shots“, or similar. The software will be based on Matlab (or similar toolboxes / libraries) and follow concepts developed for tomographic algorithms - in particular the evolutionary reconstruction approach.
211214: Master Project: Wind and turbulence measurements by (camera) drone
Town planners, architects and councils require information on the wind-field, turbulence characteristics and pollutant transport throughout townscapes. Unfortunately, detailed wind-speed measurements, at many points and with many repetitions, are laborious, time-consuming, costly and often not practical. The present project aims to explore the idea of using a camera drone for measuring the wind speed with high temporal resolution, including gusts and turbulence. For this project, a camera drone must be identified that features a location holding feature, and which provides access to the data of the flight-control computer. This would permit to extract power settings, headings and inclinations, enabling to eventually extract data that permits to deduce the wind speed. In the main phase of the project, methods for computing the wind-speed (and its evaluation in time) shall be explored, combined with statistical methods for extracting time-averaged flow-field data and statistics on turbulence.
If interested, please contact Prof. Kempf. ( firstname.lastname@example.org).
211115: Bachelor/Master Project: Optimisation of wall temperature modeling in numerical simulations
Gas turbines powered by hydrogen (or occasionally natural gas) will be an important part of the future power generation, filling the gaps of sustainable sources, e.g. solar and wind. Lean combustion is used to manage the balancing act of reducing emissions while conserving the efficiency of gas turbines. While effectively reducing emissions, these combustion conditions are prone to exhibit high-frequency thermoacoustic instabilities. These instabilities are pressure waves driven by a coupling of heat release and combustion chamber acoustics. Without mitigation efforts, the pressure fluctuations may damage the device and therefore limit the safe operating range. Previous research has shown that thermoacoustic instabilities react sensitive to changes in the temperature field in the combustion chamber. In this project, advanced methods for the simulation of wall temperatures shall be investigated to improve the accuracy of the temperature predictions in the combustion chamber. As a benchmark, reactive Large-Eddy-Simulations will be performed using the OpenFOAM framework.
We seek a highly qualified candidate and a good background of fluid dynamics is required. Previous experience with CFD simulations is beneficial.
For questions or to apply for the project, please contact M. Sc. Jonas Eigemann (jonas.eigemann [at] uni-due.de).
210824: Bachelor/Master Project: Numerical study of flames forming nanoparticles
The numerical prediction of nanoparticle requires adequate and precise models for the characterization of the turbulent behavior of the flame as well of the different phenomena involved in nanoparticle production. Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS), providing a full description of all the temporal and spatial scales, and Large Eddy Simulations (LES), resolving only the most energetic scales, have been used to investigate nanoparticle production in academic configurations. The aim of this project is to investigate different numerical simulations of reactive flows forming nanoparticles, which will help to clarify the turbulence-particle-dynamics interaction and will guide the modeling efforts. Our department is seeking for highly qualified candidates with a strong mathematical and programming background. The successful candidate will have access to our in-house code PsiPhi and will use OpenFOAM for the investigation of nanoparticles production in reactive cases. He/she will also profit of the presence of many experienced researchers, active collaborations with experts in the area of numerical modeling of nanoparticles production in reacting flows, and in massively-parallel DNS-LES from the Chair for Fluid Dynamics.
Engine knock remains a little understood phenomenon and represents a major unsolved problem in the context of ICE (internal combustion engines). It prevents the use of an engines optimal state of load, thus lowering the efficiency of the engine. Pre-combustion knock (or super-knock, a local premature ignition) is especially dangerous, as it may result in the complete failure of the engine. The aim of this thesis is to numerically investigate the physics of knock for a detonation wave propagating at Chapman-Jouguet speed. This detonation wave exhibits an unstable wave front, including the stochastic appearance of high momentum jets, which need to be analyzed. The simulations will be carried out with in-house code PsiPhi, whereby the setup of this type of simulation must be implemented and suitable ways to post-process the data must be found.
For further information please contact Prof. Andreas Kempf ( email@example.com ).
170605: Large-Eddy Simulation of non-linear Thermoaccoustics (HiWi/Master)
Low emission (lean premixed combustion) gas turbine engines are prone to thermo-accoustic instabilities that can lead to the destruction of engines, which must be avoided, necessitating a detailed understanding of the phenomenon from simulation. Such Large-Eddy Simulations will be conducted using the in-house code PsiPhi, which is suitable for efficient, massively parallel simulations on super-computers. Recent work by our research group has shown that the normal, linear treatment of wave-propagation may not be sufficient at high frequencies of the instability, and we aim to simulate the phenomenon at high pressure levels, where even (non-linear) shock waves may occur. The present project aims at analyzing the phenomenon and preparing further research into this new topic. The work will involve setting up simulations, processing and interpreting the data, and writing a suitable report. A short version of the thesis shall be turned into a research paper that can be submitted to an international journal. A suitable student will have a strong background in fluid mechanics, mathematics and computer programming, and will be open to learning about new phenomena. The present project can be conducted in collaboration with researchers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM). A HiWi job on related topics can be offered prior to the Master’s project, using a closely related software.
Please contact Prof. Andreas Kempf (firstname.lastname@example.org) for further information.
161108: Optimised Numerical Schemes for the Large-Eddy Simulation of Turbulent Combustion
Large-Eddy Simulation is a modern CFD technique for accurately predicting turbulent reacting flows by affordable computer simulation. The method has evolved over the last 15 years and is finally becoming available in commercial software programs and being used by industry leaders.
However, the method requires numerical schemes that combine high numerical accuracy with low numerical oscillation. Our group has used a hybrid approach with good success, combining accurate central differencing schemes for momentum transport with non-dispersive TVD schemes for scalar transport. Where this hybrid approach combines good accuracy with low dispersion, it can lead to inconsistencies when applied with certain combustion models based on the "Flames Surface Density" approach.
The present project will apply different combinations of available numerical schemes to different test cases, to eventually assess the overall error resulting from the schemes. Based on the findings, further transport schemes (e.g. (W)ENO) shall be implemented and tested, aiming to improve overall accuracy, reliability and robustness of the simulations.