Student Projects
Student projects at IFD are usually closely related to current research projects and are supervised by our doctoral students, lecturers and professors. Some projects are conducted in collaboration with academic and industrial partners.
The Process
At IFD we try to assign the projects according to the students' preferences. To make sure that you get the project of your choice, it is best to contact us as soon as possible and preferably a few weeks before the semester starts. For a list of available projects, see the list below.
On the first Friday of each semester, IFD organizes an information event for students who are starting a project at IFD. The event is a great opportunity to meet other students, IFD faculty members, and supervisors. Moreover, detailed information about how student projects are conducted at IFD is given (Download student project guidelines (PDF, 3.3 MB)). Specifics about the event are provided by student supervisors.
Presentations of Bachelor, semester and CSE seminar thesis projects usually take place during the last week of the semester in the room ML H 51 ("Treibhaus"). Master thesis presentation dates are setup individually depending on the corresponding starting dates. Selected posters of projects are showcased on the H-floor of the ML building (poster templates for Download LaTeX (ZIP, 551 KB) and Download MS Word (DOCX, 353 KB) are available).
Turbulent Entrainment in Gravity Currents
In many geophysical situations, the release of a denser fluid on a sloping boundary results in the formation of gravity currents, such as powder snow avalanches, turbidity currents, katabatic winds. Of particular interest are oceanic overflows that can propagate for long distances on continental shelves, playing a key role in the Global Meridional Overturning Circulation, and our weather systems. Turbulent entrainment—the engulfment of ambient fluid inside the turbulent body is at the heart of irreversible mixing in these currents, which dictates how fast and far these flows can propagate. At present, general circulation models (GCM) that predict this often rely on entrainment parametrizations born out of limited laboratory studies at low Reynolds number (Re). Although powerful, this parametrization empirically relates entrainment to only Froude number (Fr) and is found to underpredict the actual entrainment in field studies at higher Reynolds number. Hence, in this proposed project, a student will perform gravity current experiments in the tilting lock-exchange tank at the Institute of Fluid Dynamics (IFD), ETHZ. The student will systematically vary both Fr and Re to check the validity of existing entrainment parametrization. They will then isolate the effects of Fr and Re to refine the existing entrainment parametrization. This will be done using high-speed imaging to quantify density fields. A select few cases will also be probed with Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV), Planar Laser-Induced Fluorescence (PLIF) and/or X-ray densitometry, depending on the timeline and interest of the student. This study will contribute to a better understanding of turbulent entrainment, which is a key process in many geophysical flows such as oceanic circulation, powder-snow avalanches and turbidity currents.
Keywords
fluid dynamics, turbulence, gravity currents, oceanic currents, turbulence, particle image velocimetry, X-ray imaging
Labels
Semester Project , Internship , Master Thesis
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Published since: 2026-07-23 , Earliest start: 2026-08-15 , Latest end: 2027-01-05
Applications limited to ETH Zurich , EPFL - Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne , University of Zurich , Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research
Organization Group Coletti
Hosts Gawandalkar Udhav , Coletti Filippo
Topics Engineering and Technology , Physics
Effect of Particle Heat-Up on Mass Loading in Simulations of Pulverized Coal Combustion
Investigate how the delay before a coal particle heats up and starts devolatilizing affects mass-loading estimates in point-particle DNS of pulverized coal combustion, and correct the calibration used to relate a target mass loading to particle count.
Keywords
pulverized coal combustion, direct numerical simulation, point-particle model, devolatilization, particle heat-up, mass loading, Nek5000
Labels
Semester Project , Bachelor Thesis , Master Thesis
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Published since: 2026-07-23
Applications limited to ETH Zurich
Organization Group Jenny
Hosts Heinzer Heinrich
Topics Engineering and Technology , Physics
Large-eddy simulation of a convective cloud
Convective clouds play a central role in Earth's energy budget, yet they remain a leading source of uncertainty in climate and weather models. A key challenge in simulating these clouds is representing microphysics — the processes governing droplet growth and their conversion into rainfall — at scales far below what large-eddy simulations (LES) can resolve. Turbulence plays a critical role in this process, strongly influencing droplet growth through enhanced collision rates and preferential concentration. In this project, we use LES to model a convective cloud, comparing atmospherical conditions and Eulerian and Lagrangian (super-droplet) microphysics schemes to better understand how small-scale turbulent dynamics shape droplet growth and precipitation onset.
Keywords
Atmospheric clouds, Large-eddy simulation, Cloud microphysics
Labels
Semester Project , Bachelor Thesis , Master Thesis
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Published since: 2026-07-08
Applications limited to ETH Zurich
Organization Group Jenny
Hosts Codispoti Lukas
Topics Earth Sciences , Physics
High-Order Axisymmetric Boundary Integral Method
The boundary integral method (BIM) is a powerful yet light-weight simulation method for potential flows. BIM solvers apply, however, filtering schemes to stabilize time-evolving simulations. In this work, such schemes shall be avoided by using high-order numerical BIM schemes that do not trigger/amplify errors.
Keywords
CFD, numerics, BIM
Labels
Semester Project , Bachelor Thesis
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Published since: 2026-07-06
Applications limited to ETH Zurich
Organization Institute of Fluid Dynamics
Hosts Meyer-Massetti Daniel Werner
Topics Engineering and Technology , Physics