Hello all I'm Michail. I live in Lithuania, it's a small post-USSR country near Poland and Baltic Sea. I'm interested in CFD for turbomashinery. I graduated from Russian Military College and then had post-graduated courses. I've got Master's degree in combat aircraft and its engines. At post-graduated courses I studied CFD for t.-jet combustors. But circumstances made me to get back to Lithuania (I was born and grew up here) I haven't got any degree. I have at home only powerless PC so I can't solve big problems. I worked with SIMPLE-like algorithms at staggered and then at colocated grids. for steady incompressible flows. So I think what direction I need to chose to continue work in CFD in order when I've got enough money I could get PhD in some of EU universities. So if somebody can give me a good advice I'll be very grateful.

I am confused about how you can have a Masters degree but haven't got any degree. If you do not have a valid first or Masters degree you will have to address this first before enrolling for a Ph.D. Assuming you have a good and valid degree...

As a non-EU subject you will need money for substantial fees. A typical student position will not provide sufficient to cover this and living expenses however a research position possibly will although you would have to be prepared to make sacrifices. Research positions often have industrial involvement and turbomachinery has had a fair number of such positions.

When taking on a student/researcher for a Ph.D. position most academics are more interested in first class ability/potential/enthusiasm with a background in engineering/maths/physics basics. Detailed knowledge of the specialized area (e.g. CFD) is expected to be provided/picked up as part of the studies. Although having extensive prior knowledge of the area is certainly a plus it is not a big plus. (Of course, things are usually different for postdoc positions).

Having said that, when considering a prospective student their past projects will usually receive a fair amount of attention because such independent work is close to what they will be required to perform as part of the Ph.D. study. Successfully completed projects with valid conclusions about what works and where the weaknesses lie substantially strengthens the case. To have performed such projects in the area of CFD is again a plus but not a big plus.

Most CFD for turbomachinery is RANS based and can be run on a modern PC with a bit of patience. I would suggest downloading one or two codes, finding out what they get right and what they get wrong by running a few benchmark tests and comparing with the results of others. Write it up so that you can prove to others you have this capability.

Great thanks for reply. Ok. I'm ready. In my post-graduated courses I solved the following tasks. I suppose it's very modest achievements, but I've began from complete zero and Patankar (1980) book (then I went to colocated grid with Rhie and Chou monotonizator) : 1) 2D steady laminar driven cavity (Re 100...10000) 2) 2D steady Laminar flow over backward-facing step 3) 2D steady laminar flow ower cilinder 4) 3D steady laminar flow in 180 square curved bend duct 5) 2D steady turbulent flow at plate (standart k-e model) 6) 2D steady turbulent flow over backward-facing step

I used the following schemes (for convective terms): 1) UDS 2) QUICK - limiter 3) HLPA - limiter

That's all I was in time. Then I've tried to accomplish solving problem about steady flows in 3 combustor combustion chamber with mixing gas-gas cold flow (i have to get the concentration at different length and radius from fuel nozzle). It was the segment of experimental circular combustion chamber af Al-31ST. But I haven't enough time and experience to do work to the end. I only could see, how difficult it's. I worked with my own 3D codes but they left there. I've got some codes in FORTRAN from Inet but I'd like to see as much as I can because I can't imagine how people working in serious organizations (if I'll get some luck I hope to work with they).

About sacrifices. I don't want to boast myseslf, but in oder to obtain good CFD knowledge (what I only can afford in my situation) I sacrifaced all I've got.

About background in machinery and phisics. I've got some troubles recently (my knowledge may be too small) but I worked in maintaning Mig-31 and Su-27 engines, and accordingly I know how they work and how they designed.