PhD Student in Food Engineering

Lund University was founded in 1666 and is consistently ranked among the world's top universities. There are approximately 47,000 students and more than 8,800 employees in Lund, Helsingborg, and Malmö. We are united in our effort to understand, explain, and improve our world and the conditions of people.

Lund University welcomes applicants with diverse backgrounds and experiences. Gender equality, equal opportunities, and diversity are fundamental principles for all parts of our operations.

Workplace Description

The PhD position is in the research group 'Fundamentals of Food Engineering', which is part of the Department of Food and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

The group strives to combine theory, modeling, and experimental techniques from fluid mechanics, colloid chemistry, and chemical engineering to deeply understand food technology. As a PhD student, you will work at the forefront of research and collaborate with both industrial partners and internationally leading research groups.

Subject Description

On an industrial scale, emulsions are formed in emulsifying devices such as rotor-stator mixers and high-pressure homogenizers. Droplet breakup occurs due to turbulent interactions. The fundamental understanding of this has significantly increased in recent years. However, a critical part is still missing. Emulsification occurs in the presence of emulsifiers (e.g., egg protein, milk protein, or smaller molecules). These affect the interface. We also know that this influences the breakup, but not exactly how. This project investigates this in depth. The group uses both experiments (emulsification trials and high-speed visualization) and high-resolution flow simulations (DNS). The PhD student will work with both experiments and modeling. The focus will be determined based on background, interest, and how the project develops.

Job Responsibilities

The main task of a PhD student is to engage in their doctoral education, which includes participation in research projects as well as doctoral education courses. The responsibilities also include participation in teaching and other departmental work, but a maximum of 20% of the working time.

Responsibilities include studying droplet breakup through experiments and modeling. A significant part of the work is to contribute to developing methods and models, analyzing, drawing conclusions, and reporting – all with support from and in collaboration with other experts.

Responsibilities include:

• Screening emulsifiers using emulsification experiments.
• Visualization of turbulent droplet breakup with high-speed cameras.
• Developing, improving, and testing image processing algorithms for high-speed photography of droplet breakup.
• Modeling turbulent droplet breakup and emulsifier dynamics using CFD/DNS methodology.
• Developing, improving, and validating methods to test theoretical hypotheses based on DNS data.
• Evaluating and developing new theory.

For more info: https://lu.varbi.com/what:job/jobID:817560/ (https://lu.varbi.com/what:job/jobID:817560/)

Welcome with your application!

LTH – Lund University Faculty of Engineering – is the engineering faculty at Lund University. At LTH, we educate people, build knowledge for the future, and work hard to develop society. We create space for brilliant research and inspire the creative development of technology, architecture, and design. Nearly 10,000 students study here. Each year, our researchers – many of whom work in world-leading profile areas – publish around 100 theses and 2,000 scientific findings. A number of research results and student projects are refined into innovations. Together we explore and create – for the benefit of the world.

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