CFD Engineer - Aerodynamic Loads

Company: GENERAL ATOMICS
Location: Lemon Grove
Posted on: January 16, 2022

Job Description:

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI), an affiliate of General Atomics, is a world leader in proven, reliable remotely piloted aircraft and tactical reconnaissance radars, as well as advanced high-resolution surveillance systems.

We have an exciting opportunity for a Master 's level CFD (computational fluid dynamics) engineer to contribute to the analysis of subsonic and transonic air vehicles, especially as it relates to the prediction of aerodynamic loads. This position is within the Flight Technologies department in San Diego, CA. The position will entail strong collaboration with the structures department, especially for projects involving flutter and FSI (fluid-structures interaction). At low fidelity your CFD analyses might include inviscid tools, and they may be part of a flutter tool suite, MDAO framework and/or digital thread. At high fidelity you will mainly focus on commercial and government RANS codes, but there are efforts underway to investigate LBM and codes compatible with OpenMDAO. Responsibilities include the execution and documentation of CFD related design and analysis projects, tool development, and the estimation of budgets and schedules.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITES:

• Assist in all stages of the CFD-based prediction of aerodynamic loads within the Flight Technologies Department, at subsonic and transonic speeds, and often involving transition.
• Manage and execute CFD related analyses regarding external loads, in tight collaboration with stress engineers and flutter experts.
• Generation of computational meshes and performing CFD analyses using standard commercial and/or governmental mesh generators and CFD codes. The latter includes monitoring convergence of both steady state and transient simulations.
• Generate reports, specifications, memos, and sketches of the obtained CFD results and present them verbally in meetings and phone conferences to all level employees and customers.
• Development of CFD tools for process compression to enable CFD to be used in the design stages by non-CFD experts. This includes writing journal files and scripts for batch processing of geometry creation, meshing, analyses and post-processing.
• Implement physics models into the CFD tools to expand their capabilities.
• Compare CFD results to wind tunnel and flight test data, in order to validate and calibrate the analyses performed.
• Assist employees in and outside Flight Technologies with usage of generated results.
• Contribute to the improvement of analysis methods and processes for predicting aerodynamic loads.
  
  We recognize and appreciate the value and contributions of individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences and welcome all qualified individuals to apply.
  Job Qualifications:
  Typically requires a bachelor's masters degree in engineering or a related technical discipline from an accredited institution and two or more years of engineering experience with a bachelors degree. May substitute equivalent engineering experience in lieu of education. Master's or PhD preferred.Requires strong technical knowledge of external flows and aerodynamic loads at subsonic and transonic speeds. Must have a sincere interest in airplanes.Requires solid knowledge of fluid- and thermodynamics, and CFD.Requires in-depth knowledge of when to use RANS, uRANS, DDES, WM-LES, etc.Knowledge of transition modeling, such as Menter 's Re-theta-gamma. Requires mastery in at least one widely used CFD solver (preferably FLUENT or CCM+).Requires mastery of at least one meshing tool, preferably ANSA.Requires familiarity with finite element analysis (FEA), preferably NASTRAN.Requires basic knowledge of a CAD system (preferably NX).Requires solid programming knowledge (C, C++, Fortran, preferably Matlab).Experience with Government codes such as Kestrel, Fun3D, OverFlow is desirable.Familiarity with advanced solvers, such as Lattice-Boltzmann (LBM), Discontinuous Galerkin, and/or higher-order methods is desirable.Familiarity with high-lift prediction is desirable.Occasional travel to wind tunnels, customer sites, and conferences.Must have an understanding of engineering concepts, principles, and theory and experience demonstrating the application of those concepts.Must possess the ability to understand new concepts quickly and apply them accurately throughout an evolving environment.Must have strong communication, computer, documentation, presentation, and interpersonal skills.Must be able to work both independently and on a team.

Keywords: GENERAL ATOMICS, San Diego , CFD Engineer - Aerodynamic Loads, Engineering , Lemon Grove, California