Nikola Vranjic - Director/Co-founder

Zagreb, Croatia

Experience

Apr 2022 - Present

3 years 10 months

Director/Co-founder

thermIT consulting

providing expertise in thermal analysis and thermal management in aerospace, EV automotive, energy, biomedical and biotech
cooling system design
energy storage design
cryo-preservation solutions
thermal analysis
notable clients (Lilium, X-therma, AIB)

Jul 2021 - Nov 2024

3 years 5 months

Remote

Thermal engineer (remote contractor)

Lilium

Propulsion system cooling development and thermal integration of engine and propulsion vectoring systems (PVS)
PVS thermal management achieved with air cooling and without additional active components resulting in weight reduction and increased reliability
Conceptual studies and trade-offs for electric engine cooling concept
Technical go-to person for propulsion vectoring system thermals
Methods used: hand calculations, 1D, 3D CFD analysis
Test requests, test planning and test support
Thermal validation on open bench servo and the servo control units
Released 3 technical description specification documents and multiple engineering notes
Liaised with the equipment suppliers

Mar 2019 - Jul 2021

2 years 5 months

Thermal Team Lead

Rimac Automobili

Increased the team from 2 to 10 people
Lead 1D and CFD activities (method development and validation)
Introduced advanced CFD modeling (conjugate heat transfer for powertrain and battery thermal management, multi-phase flows in filling and air entrapment issues)
Organizing and distributing work according to Agile methodology, reviewed the work from colleagues spread across multiple projects (usually 5-10 projects at the time)
People development, business continuity and process development
Coordinated and managed expectations from internal and external stakeholders (Rimac Nevera, Porsche, Ferrari, AMG, ARB, Hyundai, Koenigsegg, etc.)

Apr 2018 - Mar 2019

1 year

CFD Engineer

Rimac Automobili

Aerodynamic and thermal modeling (CFD, Conjugate Heat Transfer, 1D, spreadsheets)
Cooling concept design
Feasibility studies for internal and external customers
Electric powertrain (EM, Inverter, gearbox) cooling and lubrication
EV battery and power electronics cooling
Supporting the development of Rimac C_Two, Porsche, Hyundai, and other established OEMs in electrifying their vehicles

Dec 2014 - Apr 2018

3 years 5 months

Gas Turbine Combustor Cooling Engineer

General Electric

Hot path component cooling design (key achievement: lead inventor of patented 3D printed burner front plate, resulted in increase in efficiency, decrease in manufacturing cost and pollution, implemented and selling)
Aerodynamic and thermal modeling (CFD, FEM, 1D)
Additive manufacturing (3D printing) design for combustor and turbine (GT13 E2, 7FA.05)
Test definition and test rig data evaluation (GT36, GT26 HE)
Supported 9HA.02, 7FA.05, GT36, GT26, GT13 (inlet, combustor cooling, turbine cooling, diffuser aerodynamics and thermal stress analysis)
Export control tagger
Worked as a part of international teams

Summary

Mechanical engineer with a decade of professional experience as a thermal and simulation engineer in multidisciplinary teams developing high-end products in industry leading and disruptive technology companies.

Especially skilled at first principles thinking, cooling concept design, thermal calculations, aerodynamic and heat transfer analyses.

Demonstrated ability to build competencies and a team from ground-up. The go-to person for thermal behavior of the systems, validation activities and cross-disciplinary technical discussions.

Experience in aerospace, power generation and automotive.

Skills

Analytical Thinking
Thinking From First Principles
Thermodynamics
Fluid Dynamics
Cfd (Fluent, Openfoam, Cfx, Starccm+, Matlab Simscape)
Effective Communication Skills
Ability To Work Under Pressure
Cfd Tools: Ansys Fluent, Openfoam, Cfx, Starccm+, Icem, Fluent Meshing, Centaur
Fem: Ansys Mechanical (Beginner)
Cad: Catia V5, Solidworks, Spaceclaim
1d Tools And Scripting: Matlab Simscape, Simulink, Flowmaster, Compass, Basic Python Scripting

Languages

Croatian

Native

German

Advanced

English

Advanced

Italian

Advanced

Education

Sep 2007 - Jan 2015

University of Zagreb, FAMENA

Master of Mechanical Engineering, Energy Engineering · Mechanical Engineering · Zagreb, Croatia · Magna cum Laude

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Experience

Director/Co-founder

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Thermal engineer (remote contractor)

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Summary

Skills

Languages

Education

University of Zagreb, FAMENA

Master of Mechanical Engineering, Energy Engineering · Mechanical Engineering · Zagreb, Croatia · Magna cum Laude

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