[TommyB]

Hello,

I've lurked here a bit and found this website to be very useful and knowledgeable place.

Like many before me I'm looking into starting a career in CFD and am looking for advice.

I have quite few question. I guess it is easiest if I'll tell you where I am, then what I see as areas of knowledge which are important according to job advertisements, then I'd like to ask you some questions on the matter.

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Where I am

Education:

Just submitted PhD. Area of study: suspensions, mixture of analytical and computational work (as most PhDs are). Programed in FORTRAN, all on linux.

Msc in Applied Mathematics. Lots of fluid modules, vortex dynamics, industrial mathmatics, boundary layer, inviscid flow viscous flow e.t.c. The usual MSc mix.
Project: flow round an aerofoil.

End of Education

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Work Experience:

Apart from the usual laboring jobs / waiting /shop assistant jobs I have also worked at JP Morgan doing a reconciliations role. I've also spent one year working for a government agency doing disease modeling mainly written in MATLAB but some linear algebra routines were written in JAVA and called from inside MATLAB to try and improve run time (didn't work as it happened, the frequency of calls and call overhead were too great).

End of work experience
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What I (think) I am aiming for.

Some sort of developmental CFD role, ideally start off with some sort of internship in London or the south of the UK.

Now from reading adverts I see that a list of important skills / knowledge seems to be and then what my knowledge is and trying to bridge the gap.


Turbulence models: LES seem popular, have not seen any mention of RANS.
Having never done any turbulence modeling I'm currently doing some reading up on this, I have introduced myself to RANS, have not moved into any of the problem closure methods yet though.

FVM: Also reading some material on this only just starting this though so I can't comment. Having done courses in FEM and FDM and programmed FDM I can guess where this will be going. I can see though that it's a massive area, much like any area of analysis.

Heat Transfer: I've done a few example problems on this in the past again and am trying to brush up but yet again it's a massive area.

C++: I started to learn C++ at the start of my PhD but as I was using FORTAN this fell by the side. Planning on picking it up again, not sure what to concentrate on this though. It's a massive area again.

Knowledge of commercial packages: I have no idea what to do on this front.

End of statements.

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Start of Questions.

1. Are there any other big areas which I should be brushing up on / learning?

2a). The eternal question of how much knowledge of each area is enough, they are all massive areas?

2b). What sections of areas is the correct areas to learn / be familiar with?

3. Commercial packages: Start off with OpenFoam is the only idea I have.

4. Any other tips or ways to improve myself.

End of questions

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Sorry for the long post. Hope you can shine some light on the matter for me. I guess I'm partly looking for some sort of confirmation that I'm heading in the right direction and any other tips, or that I should give up now.