Elsa Verheul
Postgraduate Researcher
University of Manchester
Co-hort year: 2024 entry
I completed my Master’s in Physics with Industrial Experience degree at the University of Bristol in 2024 with my placement year at Airbus Defence and Space, where I was part of the Simulations and Modelling department and worked on a spacecraft thermal digital twin in collaboration with ESA. For my Master’s project, I investigated Uranus’s tilt using smoothed-particle hydrodynamics methods, simulating various massive impacts using the University of Bristol’s supercomputer. I also competed in the CIUK Cluster challenge which is a student team competition with challenges on high-performance computing and artificial intelligence modelling. After my degree, I spent the summer working as a nuclear computational fluid dynamics engineer and was modelling high pressure, high temperature water inside the cooling tubes within the breeding blankets of tokamaks, investigating whether the tubes would fail from the vibrations induced by the water. Always having had an interest in fusion energy, I found the perfect PhD for me which allowed me to pursue high-performance computing in the context of exciting physics.
Developing mathematical and numerical methods to accurately describe heterogeneous systems with large property gradients is essential for advancing our understanding of complex, multiphase systems. In such systems, properties like electrical conductivity and magnetic permeability can vary several orders of magnitude between metallic, structural, and gaseous phases. Therefore an accurate prediction of the magneto-thermo-hydrodynamics in these cases requires a mathematical and numerical framework that accounts for multiple phases with large property contrasts, descriptions of turbulence development in the fluid region, and solidification. Current approaches, however, are typically limited to single-phase systems with weak electromagnetic contrasts, and therefore this new framework would provide unprecedented fidelity and have widespread industrial impact; from safety-critical processes such as high-integrity component manufacturing, including welding and additive manufacturing, to energy systems like nuclear fusion and fission power plants.
One critical application of these methods is in the study of liquid metal breeding blankets for tokamaks, which are responsible for both heat extraction and tritium breeding. Liquid metal systems, such as the liquid lithium or liquid lead-lithium found in these breeder blankets, are subject to complex, strongly coupled non-linear heat, mass and electromagnetic transport phenomena, further complicated by their multiphase nature. Accurate predictions of the magneto-thermo-hydrodynamics in such systems are vital for ensuring the safe and efficient design of these breeder blankets.
