Application closing date 02/09/2019
Faculty / School or Service Faculty of Engineering, Environment & Computing
Salary £32,243-£40,802 per annum
Package As one of Coventry's biggest employers, we offer some pretty impressive benefits including an excellent pension scheme and generous holiday allowances
Job category/type Research

Job description

A Research Fellow position in theoretical fluid mechanics is offered at Coventry University (UK). The project concerns convection under a magnetic field in the so called "tangent cylinder" region of the Earth's core. Much of the mystery surrounding the Earth's dynamics (its magnetic field, plate tecnonics) lies in the nature of the convective patterns within the Earth's liquid core, and in particular in the region called the "Tangent Cylinder". What are the possible convective states under the combined influence of the Earth's rotation and magnetic field, and how erratic are they? This thesis is part of a theoretical and experimental research program funded by the prestigious Leverhulme Trust (http://www.leverhulme.ac.uk), that aims at answering these questions. The purpose of this thesis is to theoretically predict the possible nonlinear convective states for the first time. We will then evaluate which of these states are mostly likely to underpin the Earth's core convection.

The Research Fellow will conduct the theoretical and numerical analysis of the problem under the joint supervision of Prof. Alban Pothérat (http://users.complexity-coventry.org/-potherat/index.html) and Dr Chris Pringle. The study will seek the possible structure of convection by means of advanced stability theory and branch tracking method, to unveil the possible states. In the frame of the research programme, the work is purely theoretical/numerical and will be conducted in collaboration with an experimental study that will seek to reproduce and visualise these non-linear states in an experimental model of the Earth Core.

Successful candidates are expected to hold a PhD in fluid mechanics or a related discipline and to have demonstrated excellent abilities in mathematics and programming.

The successful candidate will be part the vibrant team of internationally recognised academics and PhD students forming the fluid dynamics group within the Applied Mathematics Research Centre, whose work has been ranked at 83% world-class at the UK' latest Research Excellence Framework in 2014.

This unit is part of the Fluid and Complex Systems Research Centre, and specialises in theoretical and experimental fluid mechanics. It is especially renowned for its work on magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), turbulence, stability and geophysical flows.The group closely collaborates with partner groups in world-leading institutions in Australia, China, France, Germany and the UK.

Informal enquiries are welcome: please forward a CV and academic records to Prof. Alban Pothérat (alban.potherat@coventry.ac.uk).

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