IDLA studentship: Boundary layer transition induced by real roughness
This fully-funded project will examine how real-world surface roughness promotes transition from laminar to turbulent flow, which has a detrimental impact on performance across many engineering applications.
Key facts
Application deadline
12:00 midday UK time on Tuesday 3rd March 2026
Applications may remain open after this deadline if places are still available.
Places available
1
Academic supervisor
Professor John Coull
Funding (fully-funded scholarship)
This project will be offered as a fully-funded scholarship, which will include:
- all course fees for the duration of your course; and
- a living stipend.
This project is funded by an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Industrial Doctoral Landscape Award (IDLA).
The industrial partner for this project is Siemens.
Expected start date
Expected duration
Full time: 3-4 years
Part time: 6-8 years
About this project
All real surfaces are rough to some extent. Even when we optimise manufacturing processes to minimise roughness, roughness will tend to increase during service. For example, gas turbine surfaces roughen during service due to deposition and erosion. Early transition induced by this roughness will reduce efficiency. It also increases heat transfer coefficients, which will accelerate the thermal degradation of High Pressure Turbine components.
Today, our understanding of roughness-induced transition is largely based on artificial roughness, eg with regularly repeating elements, which are not representative of real rough surfaces. As a result, our predictive models are not fit for purpose.
This project takes a different approach that is grounded in real-world roughness. Our recent work shows that the transition process for realistic surfaces is dominated by only a few key features, eg high peaks. Building on this result, we will look to:
- identify the most critical key features for rough surfaces in general; and
- understand how their geometry affects transition. In this way we will have a tractable route to predicting the transition behaviour of real rough surfaces.
This studentship will initially use hi-fidelity Large Eddy Simulations to study roughness-induced transition, before moving onto experimental measurements in the latter half of the project. This project is supported by Siemens Energy and is part of a wider collaboration with IIT Madras and the University of Cambridge.
Course details
Unless stated otherwise, this project information is subject to the more detailed information provided on the page of the offering course.
Course offering this project
You should familiarise yourself with the details of this course before applying for this project.
Entry requirements
This studentship project is funded by UKRI.
In addition to the entry requirements for the main course, prospective candidates for this project will be judged according to how well they meet the following criteria:
- a first class or strong upper second-class undergraduate honours degree in Engineering, Physics or Materials Science;
- strong fundamental understanding of Fluid Mechanics;
- motivation and Interest in the project; and
- good communication skills.
The following skills are desirable but not essential:
- experience with programming (eg Matlab);
- experience with Experimental Fluid Mechanics and/or Heat Transfer; and
- experience with Computational Fluid Mechanics and/or Heat Transfer.
Please refer to the DPhil in Engineering Science course page for all other entry requirements, including the required level of English language proficiency.
College preference
If you have the option of stating a college preference for this project, the available colleges will be confirmed within the application form.
For some projects, including all of those offered after the standard course has closed to applications, the department will assign your application to a college.
How to apply
The guidance for this project may differ from the standard course - please read it carefully.
Application fee waivers (for all applications via this page)
Applications to this project should be made only via this page and not the related course page.
The application fee will be waived for all applications made via this page.
Contacting the department before making an application
Informal enquiries are encouraged and should be addressed to Professor John Coull ([email protected]).
Guidance for completing the application form
After you have started an application via this page, please refer to the application instructions on the main course page.