Volvo Industrial PhD Program "VIPP",CAE methodology for vehicle snow packing and sensor availability i Luleå

At Research and Development you will be a key contributor to the next generation outstanding luxury cars from Volvo. Together with other engineers around the world, you and your team will create innovative human-centric car technology that makes life less complicated and more enjoyable for people. Are you interested in design and connected car technology? Do you share our passion for people, the environment and our urge to create a superior driving experience? Research and Development is the place for you to prosper.

Volvo Industrial PhD Program “VIPP”, CAE methodology for vehicle snow packing and sensor availability for active safety and autonomous vehicles

We are announcing new PhD opportunity within Volvo Cars!
 

Are you are passionate about Cars, Autonomous drive and Active safety? Do you have a relevant background, useful knowledge and have a desire to make a difference within the field? Then we might have a challenging opportunity for you! Read further and make a decision!
 

The Contamination and Core Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) section, belonging to Environment & Fluid Dynamics department, has a long tradition of using CFD as a tool for engineering and design processes.

The Cleaning & Contamination part of the section are responsible for attribute requirements, planning and performing both CFD analysis and physical tests in all phases of vehicle programs, both individually and in teams. One of our major challenges in the near future is autonomous drive & active safety and hence to secure full functional sensors in a variety of weather conditions.

We are currently 16 persons working within the areas;

• contamination (exterior soiling and water management)
• cleaning (windscreen wiper and washer system).

We also have a lot of collaboration with our sister sections Thermodynamics and Aerodynamics with analysis and method development know-how. We work together with stylists and designers to develop and verify the systems and components in our future vehicles. An important part of our work is to continuously improve our working processes and methods. Furthermore, close cooperation with universities and participation in global research programs are an essential part of our long term development.

Project Background

The accessibility and signal integrity of sensors is vital for the functionality of active safety and autonomous vehicle systems. In real customer weather conditions, the functionality of cameras, radars and other sensors can be limited due to signal deprecation (due to contaminated surfaces). Heavy snowfall, rain or dirt is inherently problematic for securing the sensors availability.

Project Description

• PhD student, employed by Volvo cars
• Title: CAE methodology for vehicle snow packing and sensor availability for active safety and autonomous vehicles

• The PhD project aims on development of a CAE toolbox to maintain the availability of active safety as well as autonomous drive (AD) systems at snowy weather conditions

The development of such CAE toolbox will enable numerical prediction of contamination, its consequences on sensors, and subsequent cleaning of the surface in question. A particle adhesion model, describing the self-contamination of a vehicle in snow will be developed. Transient flow conditions, and its influence on the transport of particles will be evaluated. The consequences of snow contamination will be investigated, by implementing a virtual electromagnetic radar model to simulate radar signal quality.

The project is divided in different work packages:

• Investigate wide range of snow types - adhesion and packed snow properties
• Investigate the effects of different surface properties (i.e. hydrophobicity)
• Implement of snow packing results into CFD model
• Implement contamination results into radar/sensor propagation model
• Experimental expeditions (i.e. winter test tracks, real roads, laboratory scale, indoor test facilities)

Project result

The work will result in a licentiate and doctoral thesis at Chalmers Technical University Gothenburg and with co-supervision from the division of Fluid and Experimental Mechanics at Luleå University of Technology. One or two Master thesis projects will be carried out as support. Results will be published at international conferences, in scientific journals, and in other relevant forums

Required qualifications

The applicant must have a master's level degree corresponding to at least 240 higher education credits or equivalent in a relevant field such as Physics engineering, Mechanical engineering or Chemical engineering.

• Good knowledge in Fluid-Mechanics, Physics and Mathematics
• Good knowledge in numerical engineering tools and commercial CFDs software
• Experience with experimental measurement equipment is beneficial
• Good knowledge in programming, e.g Matlab, C++, Python or Java
• Fluent in English, written and spoken
• Driver’s license “B”

Meritorious qualifications

• Experience from automotive CFD within the attributes such as aerodynamics, contamination, thermodynamics
• Experience of working in aerodynamic or climatic wind tunnels
• Understanding of particle technology and surface chemistry

Personal qualities

We are looking for someone with a genuine interest in cars and fast growing automotive technologies!

As a person, you are open-minded and result driven self-starter with a great ability to work independently as well as in a group. You are innovative individual with holistic point of view, who enjoy working in close collaboration with different stakeholders. Moreover, you possess high level of communication, planning and managerial skills and have at the same time analytical and thorough approach while searching for new solutions. You have a high level of energy, as well as motivation to encourage others, be involved and make a difference in the company and broader. Last but not least, you are customer oriented individual, hence able to recognize and understand customer`s needs and demands. 

If you find yourself in above mention profile and qualifications, please do not hesitate to apply for this once time opportunity!