Poste :

Research Assistant position for development of highly effective numerical tools to monitor slurry flow as a moving porous medium

While the adoption of slurry transportation for minerals has seen successful across various industries globally, significant uncertainties persist, hindering the achievement of optimal transportation efficiency. One of the primary challenges contributing to this is the limited understanding of slurry hydrodynamics. Our objective is to develop a range of numerical tools that pipeline managers can utilize to transition to a predictive operational mode for slurry transportation.

In this context, we are seeking a research scientist to implement highly efficient numerical tools for monitoring phosphate transport. While the literature offers several modeling strategies capable of simulating slurry flow behavior, little information exists regarding their applicability to complex industrial transportation scenarios. Our goal is to thoroughly explore these reported modeling strategies, conduct comparative analyses, focus on new strategies where the slurry might be considered as a moving porous medium, analyze the epistemic and/or aleatoric uncertainties of the slurry transport problem (based on fuzzy variables and/or random variables), and based on these analyses, develop the most efficient algorithms suitable for industrial application, primarily using Matlab.

Key duties:

Successful candidates are expected to:

• Perform a thorough literature review of slurry flow/transport.
• Study the possibility of modelling the slurry as a moving porous medium
• Develop numerical tools that can be used to model and monitor slurry transport.
• Supervise Master and PhD students related to this topic.

Key duties:

Successful candidates are expected to:

• Perform a thorough literature review of slurry flow/transport.
• Study the possibility of modelling the slurry as a moving porous medium
• Develop numerical tools that can be used to model and monitor slurry transport.
• Supervise Master and PhD students related to this topic.

Skills:   

• Hydraulics and fluid dynamics
• Non-Newtonian fluids and/or complex rheology
• Efficient numerical methods
• Writing and communication skills in French and English

Profil recherché :

Criteria of the candidate:   

• Engineering degree in Hydraulics, Fluid Dynamics, Civil Engineering, or Equivalent. 
• Proven ability to write papers and reports, and to make good presentations in English.
• Proven ability to develop highly efficient numerical methods in computational fluid dynamics
• Knowledge of Matlab language and toolboxes (and/or similar softwares and languages)
• Proven ability to supervise students.