Opportunity for Postdoctoral position on nuclear fuel behavior
The Laboratory for Reactor Physics and System Behavior (LRS) at EPFL is looking for a motivated Post-Doc in the field of multi-dimensional modelling of nuclear fuel.
The position is expected to begin in Q1/Q2 2023 and will be based 100% in the EPFL campus in Lausanne.
The successful candidate will actively participate to the OperaHPC European project (starting in November 2022) and will effectively lead part of the subtasks assigned to EPFL.
One of the main objectives is to advance the capabilities of modern 3D fuel performance codes by enhancing the thermo-mechanical simulation of the fuel rod with high-performance computing (HPC), uncertainty quantification and a more accurate description of the fuel microstructure.
Central to the project is the 3D open-source fuel performance code OFFBEAT, which is based on the OpenFOAM C++ platform and is in development at EPFL and PSI since 2017.
Several developments will be carried out with the help of the successful candidate in the framework of the OperaHPC project. These will focus, for instance, on improving the formulation of mechanical contact to perform multi-pellet and multi-fragment simulations; on a multi-material treatment to analyze the effect of liners on the cladding behavior; on the application of layer addition/removal techniques to model the growth of oxide films; or on the creation/testing of coupling interfaces between OFFBEAT and mesoscale tools developed by the other partners’ institutions.
FURTHER INFO: https://recruiting.epfl.ch/Vacancies/2663/Description/2
Opportunities for PhD in the field of high-fidelity, multi-physics modeling of nuclear reactors.
The PhD student will investigate the multi-physics effects of thermomechanical phenomena such as core radial expansion, core flowering and assembly bowing, which are highly relevant for advanced reactor concepts.
The aim is to focus both on structural integrity issues (stresses and deformations) and on the impact on neutronics and thermal hydraulics.
The student will have the opportunity to acquire a wide range of numerical and modeling skills, and to learn a wide set of tools. These will include the two open-source codes developed at LRS and based on OpenFOAM, i.e. OFFBEAT for fuel mechanics and GeN-Foam for the multi-physics analysis of nuclear reactors, as well as the Monte Carlo neutron transport code Serpent, the fuel behavior code TRANSURANUS and Ansys Mechanical.
The PhD is partly embedded in the ESFR-SIMPLE project, led by the CEA (France) and is participated by several European institutions, research centers and universities. The PhD student will be partly responsible for the tasks assigned to EPFL in the framework of this project.