PhD Studentship with the Leverhulme Trust - Experimental Investigation of Phase Change Mechanisms in Aircraft Contrail Formation

Contrail formation remains one of the least understood yet most climate-relevant impacts of aviation. Persistent contrails can evolve into cirrus-like clouds that significantly affect Earth's radiative balance, but the physical mechanisms governing their formation particularly in the near-field region immediately downstream of aircraft engines remain poorly characterised. This fully funded PhD studentship is part of a Leverhulme Trust Research Project entitled "Bridging the scale gap: From non-equilibrium thermodynamics to contrails". The project combines laboratory-scale experiments with high-fidelity numerical modelling to investigate vapour-liquid-solid phase transitions in aircraft exhaust plumes under controlled conditions, with particular relevance to emerging low-soot propulsion technologies such as sustainable aviation fuels and hydrogen.