Suggestions for Msc/Masters Programs
 

Hi all!

I am just about to complete my under graduation in Aerospace Engineering. Still fresh meat in the simulation world, I would like to study further in CFD.

I am looking for masters programs at universities with good courses in fluid mechanics and programming, preferably with universities that have research groups using OpenFOAM. My application interest is in the energy industry.

I know that Delft has a very attractive MSc titled "Solid and Fluid Mechanics". Cranfield's CFD program looks also nice, but I'm looking for courses with broader scope. My UG grades are quite low, therefore, my application being acceptance might be an issue, being an international(non-EU) student.

So my question to all the seasoned professional here,
Any suggestions for good masters programs/universities that you might know of?
Location is not a stern criteria although I would prefer universities that are NOT in the UK and the US.

Any advice for this noob would be really helpful!

Thanks in advance, Cheers!

Hello, I want to ask one question, will OpenFOAM have a good future?

Are you planning to stay in the research sector after your M.Sc.? From my experience in Germany, most companies use commercial software because they rely on the support from Ansys/CD-Adapco/etc since they don't want their engineer to 'waste' time trying to fix OpenFOAM problems.
Only a few R&D departments have the time and resources to use OpenFOAM.
In case you would like to pursue a PhD and/or work in academic research sector, OpenFOAM can be more helpful since a PhD student is more likely to 'waste' a couple of weeks trying to solve some coding problem in OpenFOAM.

My statements are very broad and of course you will find examples that prove otherwise but maybe you can take this a thought. If you plan to work after your M.Sc., working with a commercial software might be a good plan, too.

Regarding specialized Master programs, I cannot give you any advice since I completed a 'normal' mechanical engineering program.

Hey Maxim, thanks for your reply and I think what you said is quite true everywhere in the world. Although to answer your question, yes, I do have inclinations to do a PhD and work within academic research, hence my interest with OpenFOAM.
Are you aware of any universities that do good work in CFD(OpenFOAM or commercial packages)? Even if they don't offer specialized courses, a good research group is always valuable to have around.

I know from my alma mater, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, that practically every engineering department does research in either CFD or FEM simulations or both (combined). Aerospace, turbo machinery, power plants, system/plant technology, automotive, HVAC, chemical engineering, etc. For my master's thesis with specialization in aerospace and turbo machinery, I was able to chose from a variety of topics with respective research groups (that also sometimes have collaborations with industry partners. There are groups that use OpenFoam, Star-CCM+, CFX, etc.
AFAIK, this also applies to all top engineering universities in Germany such as Munich, Stuttgart, Aachen, Darmstadt, Hamburg, Berlin, etc. A lot of them even develop their own code and solvers.

So my way to go would be to enroll in a general engineering program such as mechanical or aerospace and then choose your specialization in fluid dynamics (and numerics for example) and then plan your thesis accordingly so that you get offered a PhD position by your professor.

With that method, you will be able to pursue your career in CFD easily but in case you're sick of it in 5-10 years, you could still switch to something related based on your 'broad' aerospace/mechanical engineering degree.

If you want some broader scope, Delft also offers ChemE and applied physics programmes, which of course have a lot to do with energy and fluid mechanics but are not as specific as fluid/solid mechanics. Depending on your choice of elecives and thesis subject, you can spend about 1/2 of the programme on numerical methods. For a choice of software, in our research group (transport phenomena) about half of the PhD students working on simulation use openFOAM, and most of the others use homebrew codes. A few PhD and about 50% of the MSc students in the group use commercial codes (ANSYS).

I don't have a lot of info about how things go in other universities, but if you would like some more information about Delft, feel free to shoot me a message.

Cheers,
Cees