Research Engineer for High-fidelity Thermo-mechanical Simulations for Solid Oxide Electrolyzer Cells

**Job Reference**: - 424_25_CASE_DT_RE1 **Position**: - Research Engineer for High-fidelity thermo-mechanical simulations for Solid Oxide Electrolyzer Cells (RE1) **Closing Date**: - Monday, 14 July, 2025 **Reference**: 424_25_CASE_DT_RE1 **Job title**: Research Engineer for High-fidelity thermo-mechanical simulations for Solid Oxide Electrolyzer Cells (RE1) **About BSC** - The Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) is the leading supercomputing center in Spain. It houses MareNostrum, one of the most powerful supercomputers in Europe, was a founding and hosting member of the former European HPC infrastructure PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe), and is now hosting entity for EuroHPC JU, the Joint Undertaking that leads large-scale investments and HPC provision in Europe. The mission of BSC is to research, develop and manage information technologies in order to facilitate scientific progress. BSC combines HPC service provision and R&D into both computer and computational science (life, earth and engineering sciences) under one roof, and currently has over 1000 staff from 60 countries. Look at the BSC experience: BSC-CNS YouTube Channel Let's stay connected with BSC Folks We promote Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, fostering an environment where each and every one of us is appreciated for who we are, regardless of our differences. **Context And Mission** - The urgent need for decarbonization has led to a shift towards hydrogen and hydrogen-enriched fuels as solutions for future cleaner and low-carbon energy systems. However, meeting the EU targets for reduced emissions and carbon dependency presents new challenges for energy-intensive industrial processes like steel manufacturing and power generation. Power-to-X (P2X) technologies are being developed to produce "green hydrogen" from renewable electricity. This green hydrogen can then be used to enhance these processes, reducing their carbon footprint and dependence on fossil fuels. Given the still low energy density of batteries, green hydrogen is currently the only feasible alternative to decarbonize industries where this parameter is critical, such as commercial aviation. Hydrogen-based technologies are a crucial component of the energy transition, and they require digital tools and advanced software to accelerate their deployment in the market. Green hydrogen, generated from water and renewable electricity in an electrolyzer, can be stored and distributed for use in power generation or electrochemical systems like fuel cells. Among the most efficient hydrogen production systems, Solid Oxide Electrolyzer Cells (SOECs), which operate at high temperatures, have shown significant potential to generate hydrogen at moderate and large scales. This cutting-edge technology involves numerous physical and chemical phenomena occurring at various scales, from thermo-mechanical-fluidic processes at the centimeter scale to electrochemistry at the nanoscale. The multi-physics and multi-scale nature of these devices makes them extremely challenging to simulate, but the results of these simulations are highly valuable for predicting and designing real-world operating systems. **Key Duties** - Develop a thermo-mechanical solver to study thermal and mechanical cycling loads. - Implement advanced constitutive material models. - Predict the thermal stresses of the critical cell components. - Predict the fracture of the critical cell components under fatigue. - Interact with different project partners to carry out collaborative research - Contribute to scientific publications and report to various national and EU projects in which the researcher will be involved **Requirements**: - Education - Master's degree in computational mechanics - Essential Knowledge and Professional Experience - Knowledge of solid mechanics and thermodynamics is expected. - Knowledge of constitutive materials models is expected. - Familiarity with numerical methods for partial differential equations (PDEs) is preferred. - Familiarity with computer science and programming languages is preferred. - Additional Knowledge and Professional Experience - Fluency in English is essential. - Competences - Strong analytical skills. - Ability to work independently and within a team. - Good communication and team-work skills to work in a multidisciplinary team **Conditions** - The position will be located at BSC within the CASE Department - We offer a full-time contract (37.5h/week), a good working environment, a highly stimulating environment with state-of-the-art infrastructure, flexible working hours, extensive training plan, restaurant tickets, private health insurance, support to the relocation procedures - Duration: Open-ended contract due to technical and scientific activities linked to the project and budget duration - Holidays: 23 paid vacation days plus 24th and 31st of December per our collective agreement - Starting date: 01/07/2024