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Nutrient transport in tumours, forest wildfires and cave formation may seem unrelated, but all are instances of chemical conversion of porous media. A liquid or gas (and sometimes both) penetrates the solid structure, and they undergo mechanical, thermal and chemical interactions, which modify the flowing phase(s) and the solid. We focus on processes, which include mechanical, thermal and chemical interactions. Examples include pyrolysis, gasification and smouldering, among others. They are at the core of environmental phenomena like wildfires and industrial processes like waste utilization and syngas production. During conversion, porous media undergo structural evolution intrinsic to the process. A familiar example is a burning firematch. The wooden stick exposed to the high temperature undergoes smouldering and expels volatiles that support fire. The gas transports the matter out of the wooden stick and influences the material’s structure and tensions inside. As a result, the fire match changes visually. It shrinks, twists, cracks and often breaks during the process. The remaining charcoal and ashes are very different from what they were initially.

Recently, PI developed the porousGasificationFOAM library to model the thermal and chemical conversion of porous media. It is based on the OpenFOAM library, a C++, open-source environment for solving

Partial Differential Equations using the Finite Volume Method. The porousGasificationFOAM extends OpenFOAM’s capabilities to model, e.g., pyrolysis, gasification and smouldering of porous media that occupy a fixed volume in space. It neglects the motion of the porous bed, which is an important component in the process. The addition of the bed motion is a significant step forward in the functionality, applicability and accuracy of the porousGasificationFOAM library. It opens new environmental and industrial fields for research. It does so by enabling the transition from the laboratory scale problems, where motion can be neglected (e.g., pyrolysis and gasification of a cm-size pellet), to environmentally and industrially relevant scales (pyrolysis and gasification of peat).

The project consists of three stages. The first one is the data curation for model design and validation. PI’s collaborators performed experiments relevant to the various types of porous media motion: pyrolysis and gasification of an elongated wooden structure, pyrolysis and gasification in an updraft vertical gasifier, smouldering front propagation through a horizontal peat bed. The data will guide the fundamental research constituting the second part of the project: derivation of physical models of porous media shrinkage, cracking and flow and their implementation within OpenFOAM. The third part includes thorough testing and validation of the proposed models against experimental data from collaborators and literature.

The post-doc is expected to independently design and develop OpenFOAM computational library regarding solid phase motion during thermal and chemical conversion of porous media.

Responsibilities:

- get familiar with requirements posed by experimental data and practical applications of the library

- design of the library based on key requirements

- implement the library

- test and prepare the release version of the library

- prepare manuscripts, code and necessary data for publication

- manage the project's tasks for its successful completion

- to disseminate research results at project meetings, in peer-reviewed journals and at international conferences

We offer a post-doctoral position (full-time employment) in the Institute of Physical Chemistry PAS with a gross salary of around 11.000 PLN per month financed from the NCN SONATA 18 Project No. 2022/47/D/ST3/01162 100% of the work time of Postdoc will be devoted to the realization of the proposed project.

The successful candidate will learn and participate in the complete production cycle of a scientific computational library. They will learn to formulate a computational problem from discussions with project partners who work with experimental setups in industry and environmental science. They will learn to frame those with precise mathematical and physical models. They will identify key challenges and opportunities to overcome them with the OpenFOAM library written in C++ for solving Partial Differential Equations with the Finite Volume Method. They will test their designs and implementations against the real experimental data. They will learn to prepare software releases oriented toward user satisfaction in terms of usability and accessibility.

The successful candidate will finish the project with knowledge and experience that are valuable in academia and industry.

The successful candidate will be eligible for all programs at the IPC PAS, including the IPC PAS Young Scientists competition and the IPC PAS Young Scientists Mobility competition.

Institute provides an opportunity to participate in ERASMUS+ programme.

1.  PhD degree in chemical, physical or computational sciences, obtained in the year of employment in the project or within 7 years before 1 January of the year of employment in the project. For researchers with multiple PhDs, the date of the first PhD award is deemed the reference date. Extension might apply according to National Science Centre, Poland, rules.

2.  Publication record and experience in research.

3.  Good knowledge of C++, which allows for efficient understanding of written code and implementation of novel ideas.

4. Knowledge of partial differential equations, which allows one to express and discuss novel physical ideas in that form.

5. Knowledge of basic ideas in continuum mechanics, thermodynamics and chemistry.

6. Knowledge of basic computational algorithms and data structures.

7. Previous experience with OpenFOAM.

8 . Ability to work independently as well as in a group.

9.  Ability to communicate fluently in English (written and spoken).

10. Motivation to communicate with experts from other fields of research.

11. Strong motivation to work and solve scientific problems requiring creativity, as well as analytical and synthetic thinking.

The Recruitment Commission will take into account the following criteria:

• competencies for specific tasks in the research project
• knowledge of OpenFOAM environment and C++
• knowledge of partial differential equations in application to continuum mechanics
• knowledge of basic algorithms and data structures
• previous scientific achievements and awards and distinctions resulting from the conducted research
• satisfactory knowledge of points a)-d) can also be shown by solving the short problem in OpenFOAM, which can be found at my github repository together with submission guidelines: https://github.com/pjzuk/openPosition2024