Job Reference
404_24_CASE_DT_RE1
Position
Research Engineer - for High-fidelity thermo-mechanical simulations for Solid Oxide Electrolyzer Cells (RE1)
Closing Date
Tuesday, 16 July, 2024
Reference: 404_24_CASE_DT_RE1
Job title: Research Engineer - for High-fidelity thermo-mechanical simulations for Solid Oxide Electrolyzer Cells (RE1)
About BSC
The Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) is the leading supercomputing center in Spain. It houses MareNostrum, one of the most powerful supercomputers in Europe, was a founding and hosting member of the former European HPC infrastructure PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe), and is now hosting entity for EuroHPC JU, the Joint Undertaking that leads large-scale investments and HPC provision in Europe. The mission of BSC is to research, develop and manage information technologies in order to facilitate scientific progress. BSC combines HPC service provision and R&D into both computer and computational science (life, earth and engineering sciences) under one roof, and currently has over 1000 staff from 60 countries.
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We are particularly interested for this role in the strengths and lived experiences of women and underrepresented groups to help us avoid perpetuating biases and oversights in science and IT research. In instances of equal merit, the incorporation of the under-represented sex will be favoured.
Look at the BSC experience:
BSC-CNS YouTube Channel
Let's stay connected with BSC Folks!
We are particularly interested for this role in the strengths and lived experiences of women and underrepresented groups to help us avoid perpetuating biases and oversights in science and IT research. In instances of equal merit, the incorporation of the under-represented sex will be favoured.
Context And Mission
The urgent need for decarbonization has led to a shift towards hydrogen and hydrogen-enriched fuels as solutions for future cleaner and low-carbon energy systems. However, meeting the EU targets for reduced emissions and carbon dependency presents new challenges for energy-intensive industrial processes like steel manufacturing and power generation. Power-to-X (P2X) technologies are being developed to produce "green hydrogen" from renewable electricity. This green hydrogen can then be used to enhance these processes, reducing their carbon footprint and dependence on fossil fuels. Given the still low energy density of batteries, green hydrogen is currently the only feasible alternative to decarbonize industries where this parameter is critical, such as commercial aviation. Hydrogen-based technologies are a crucial component of the energy transition, and they require digital tools and advanced software to accelerate their deployment in the market.
Green hydrogen, generated from water and renewable electricity in an electrolyzer, can be stored and distributed for use in power generation or electrochemical systems like fuel cells. Among the most efficient hydrogen production systems, Solid Oxide Electrolyzer Cells (SOECs), which operate at high temperatures, have shown significant potential to generate hydrogen at moderate and large scales. This cutting-edge technology involves numerous physical and chemical phenomena occurring at various scales, from thermo-mechanical-fluidic processes at the centimeter scale to electrochemistry at the nanoscale. The multi-physics and multi-scale nature of these devices makes them extremely challenging to simulate, but the results of these simulations are highly valuable for predicting and designing real-world operating systems.
This opportunity offers a chance to work on predicting the mechanical behavior of SOEC technology, focusing on developing a thermo-mechanical solver and constitutive modeling of the system. The research will involve understanding the thermo-mechanical properties of SOECs and creating a model to accurately predict thermal stresses in critical cell components under service conditions. The developed framework will be integrated into Alya, an HPC-multiphysics code, coupling it with the thermo-electro-chemical solver. The successful candidate will collaborate with a team of experienced researchers to advance the SOEC field and contribute to the development of sustainable energy technologies.
The model developed by the candidate will be verified and validated against experimental data gathered from prototype cells provided by the cutting-edge equipment of project partners. The final outcome of this project includes the candidate developing infrastructure for generating Digital Twins that use Artificial Intelligence (AI) and physics-based reduced-order models to process data from the full description of the SOEC system. Model developments will be conducted in collaboration with the Universidad de Sevilla, with expected interactions with the solid mechanics group there.
Green hydrogen, generated from water and renewable electricity in an electrolyzer, can be stored and distributed for use in power generation or electrochemical systems like fuel cells. Among the most efficient hydrogen production systems, Solid Oxide Electrolyzer Cells (SOECs), which operate at high temperatures, have shown significant potential to generate hydrogen at moderate and large scales. This cutting-edge technology involves numerous physical and chemical phenomena occurring at various scales, from thermo-mechanical-fluidic processes at the centimeter scale to electrochemistry at the nanoscale. The multi-physics and multi-scale nature of these devices makes them extremely challenging to simulate, but the results of these simulations are highly valuable for predicting and designing real-world operating systems.
This opportunity offers a chance to work on predicting the mechanical behavior of SOEC technology, focusing on developing a thermo-mechanical solver and constitutive modeling of the system. The research will involve understanding the thermo-mechanical properties of SOECs and creating a model to accurately predict thermal stresses in critical cell components under service conditions. The developed framework will be integrated into Alya, an HPC-multiphysics code, coupling it with the thermo-electro-chemical solver. The successful candidate will collaborate with a team of experienced researchers to advance the SOEC field and contribute to the development of sustainable energy technologies.
The model developed by the candidate will be verified and validated against experimental data gathered from prototype cells provided by the cutting-edge equipment of project partners. The final outcome of this project includes the candidate developing infrastructure for generating Digital Twins that use Artificial Intelligence (AI) and physics-based reduced-order models to process data from the full description of the SOEC system. Model developments will be conducted in collaboration with the Universidad de Sevilla, with expected interactions with the solid mechanics group there.
Key Duties
- Develop a thermo-mechanical solver to study thermal and mechanical cycling loads.
- Implement advanced constitutive material models.
- Predict the thermal stresses of the critical cell components.
- Predict the fracture of the critical cell components under fatigue.
- Interact with different project partners to carry out collaborative research
- Contribute to scientific publications and report to various national and EU projects in which the researcher will be involved
Requirements
- Education
- The applicant must possess a master's degree or be a final-year master's student with a robust foundation in computational mechanics
- Essential Knowledge and Professional Experience
- Knowledge of solid mechanics and thermodynamics is expected.
- Knowledge of constitutive materials models is expected.
- Familiarity with numerical methods for partial differential equations (PDEs) is preferred.
- Familiarity with computer science and programming languages is preferred.
- Additional Knowledge and Professional Experience
- Fluency in English is essential.
- Competences
- Strong analytical skills.
- Ability to work independently and within a team.
- Good communication and team-work skills to work in a multidisciplinary team
Conditions
- The position will be located at BSC within the CASE Department
- We offer a full-time contract (37.5h/week), a good working environment, a highly stimulating environment with state-of-the-art infrastructure, flexible working hours, extensive training plan, restaurant tickets, private health insurance, support to the relocation procedures
- Duration: Open-ended contract due to technical and scientific activities linked to the project and budget duration
- Holidays: 23 paid vacation days plus 24th and 31st of December per our collective agreement
- Salary: we offer a competitive salary commensurate with the qualifications and experience of the candidate and according to the cost of living in Barcelona
- Starting date: 01/07/2024
Applications procedure and process
All applications must be made through BSC website and contain:
- A full CV in English including contact details
- A Cover Letter with a statement of interest in English, including two contacts for further references - Applications without this document will not be considered
In accordance with the OTM-R principles, a gender-balanced recruitment panel is formed for every vacancy at the beginning of the process. After reviewing the content of the applications, the panel will start the interviews, with at least one technical and one administrative interview. A profile questionnaire as well as a technical exercise may be required during the process.
The panel will make a final decision and all candidates who had contacts with them will receive a feedback with details on the acceptance or rejection of their profile.
At BSC we are seeking continuous improvement in our recruitment processes, for any suggestions or feedback/complaints about our Recruitment Processes, please contact recruitment [at] bsc [dot] es.
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Deadline
The vacancy will remain open until a suitable candidate has been hired. Applications will be regularly reviewed and potential candidates will be contacted.
OTM-R principles for selection processes
BSC-CNS is committed to the principles of the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers of the European Commission and the Open, Transparent and Merit-based Recruitment principles (OTM-R). This is applied for any potential candidate in all our processes, for example by creating gender-balanced recruitment panels and recognizing career breaks etc.
BSC-CNS is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion. We are pleased to consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability or any other basis protected by applicable state or local law.
For more information follow this link
BSC-CNS is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion. We are pleased to consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability or any other basis protected by applicable state or local law.
For more information follow this link