Research Engineer in Thermodynamics

EPFL, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, is one of the most dynamic university campuses in Europe and ranks among the top 20 universities worldwide. The EPFL employs more than 6,500 people supporting the three main missions of the institution: education, research and innovation. The EPFL campus offers an exceptional working environment at the heart of a community of more than 17,000 people, including over 12,500 students and 4,000 researchers from more than 120 different countries.

Your mission :
The key objective of this project is to design and optimize the performance of residential or light commercial turbocompressor-driven heat pumps operated with novel working fluids. The working fluid will be selected from a set of single-component and/or multi-component fluids proposed by our industrial partner to enable advantageous combinations of environmental, health, safety, and thermodynamic properties. The selection will meet current and emerging environmental, safety, and energy efficiency regulations while minimizing the heat pump’s total cost of ownership.

Main duties and responsibilities include :

• Implementation of a modular numerical model for simple and advanced heat pump cycles and their components (centrifugal compressor, heat exchangers, expansion).
• Optimize heat pump cycles and components for different working fluids to minimize Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
• Compare the different heat pump cycles and configurations to the best incumbent (scroll) heat pumps.

Your profile :
The ideal candidate holds a degree in mechanical engineering (HES/EPF) with an orientation in energy, thermodynamics, and fluid dynamics. Knowledge of heat exchanger modeling and optimization methodologies is a plus. The position requires a strong interest in developing and testing new mathematical and computational methodologies for integrated heat pump cycle modeling.

We offer :
The appointment will be full-time for one year, with the potential for renewal. The research will be carried out closely with Postdocs, PhD students, engineers, and master students. Since the laboratory is an international environment, excellent knowledge of written and oral English expression is required, and French is a plus.

Start date :
As soon as possible

Term of employment :
Fixed-term (CDD)

Work rate :
80-100%

Duration :
Fixed-term contract (CDD), 1 year renewable, max. 4 years in total.

Remark :
Only candidates who applied through EPFL website or our partner Jobup’s website will be considered. Files sent by agencies without a mandate will not be taken into account.

Reference :
Job Nb 3237

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