Thermal CAE Engineer - GM Defense

About the role

The Thermal CAE Engineer will be responsible for capturing information from a variety of sources inside and outside of GM Defense, building and running analytical models, interpreting results for customers, attending development team meetings, interacting with compartment integration teams, and helping to drive the design that meets internal and external requirements.

Responsibilities

• Estimate propulsion heat rejection and determine air flow requirements for cooling system applications
• Size cooling systems and determine cooling capacity required and air flow requirements for system condensers
• Evaluate system exteriors with focus on cooling air flow and sealing using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models (front end cooling, passenger compartment)
• Evaluate propulsion systems cooling and AC system performance using various simulations tools
• Perform vehicle level CFD simulations to lead the design of the vehicle for thermal management
• Develop and support novel approaches for analysis in controls, thermal integration, and controls co-sim development
• Pro-actively develop simulations for new programs based on vehicle content and functional objectives
• Post process and interpret simulation results to identify current performance gaps and develop solutions to improve performance
• Daily use of several commercial CFD codes, solvers and supporting software in Windows, LINUX/UNIX and HPC environment
• Interface and collaborate with Studio and Engineering Teams, present numerical and visual data, and recommendations effectively, to ensure component and system level performance requirements are achieved
• Engage in vehicle development activity and proactively take ownership of simulation activity to best guide the design team
• Willing to question the status quo and work to develop new methods and tools to streamline the defense toolkit in the thermal space

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical or Electrical Engineering with coursework in Thermodynamics, Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Finite Element Analysis
• 5+ years of professional experience
• Experience and coursework in Lumped-Parameter Network Solvers, CFD methodology and application
• Theoretical background in propulsion plant modeling for controls algorithm development in GT-suites and MATLAB/Simulink as inputs to thermal model
• Experience with computer tools, 3D CAD files, CAE methods and Experimental Data
• Familiarity with Aerodynamic and Climatic Wind Tunnel testing, measurement techniques and data systems
• Experience using commercial CFD solvers such as FLUENT, STAR-CCM+, EXA-POWERFLOW, Mesh generators such as ANSA, HYPERWORKS and FEA Codes such as NASTRAN and ABAQUS

Preferred Qualifications

• Masters or Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering with focus on Thermal Sciences
• Mathematical modeling and analysis of various subsystems of both conventional and electric vehicle powertrain using state-of-the-art analytical tools, including STAR-CCM+, MATLAB/Simulink and co-sim environments
• Modeling, simulation, and validation of open and closed loop system models in desktop simulation and HIL hardware
• Experience in design/release of automotive thermal systems
• DFSS training, Green Belt or beyond
• Comfortable with an ever-changing environment, flexible in skillset, willing to learn and can handle ambiguous assignments