The University of Wollongong’s Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials at Faculty of Engineering are seeking two high calibre candidates to undertake PhDs in the area of superconducting coils for saturated core Fault Current Limiters. This research is part of a three-year project funded by the Australian Research Council and supported significantly by Zenergy Power Pty Ltd (who will be actively involved in setting project milestones and guiding project outcomes).
Saturated core superconducting Fault Current Limiters are designed to protect and improve the availability of electricity grids in an energy efficient manner. This project aims to design, build and test next generation superconducting coils (based on MgB2 superconductor) for the fault current limiter application. The complete design of appropriate superconducting coils will necessarily include the design of an associated cryogenic cooling system, and will require significant thermal analysis and simulation work using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software. The project will also involve close collaboration with Zenergy Power Pty Ltd.
The successful candidates will have bachelor degrees in Mechanical Engineering or related disciplines. Significant experience in Cryogenic Engineering and system integration will also be extremely beneficial in these positions and highly valued during the selection process. Although the simulation and analysis work forms a large part of the project (especially in the first year), the successful candidate will also be expected to design and build data acquisition systems, vacuum control systems, cryo-cooler control systems and integrate these individual components into a complete functioning system.