The, statistically-Unsteady, Next generation Sediment Transport model for Environmental flows

环境流动对沉积物的搬运塑造了我们周围的世界。因此，我们预测沉积物输运的能力对一系列学科和部门至关重要，对水、能源和粮食安全至关重要。例如，准确的泥沙输运预测是管理自然环境、筛选和减轻地质灾害风险、设计和运营海上风电场以及开发自然资源的关键。这些领域的研究直接解决了英国和全球面临的主要挑战，包括清洁和安全的能源，地质灾害恢复力和不断变化的自然和社会环境中的生态系统管理。尽管其明显的重要性，国家的最先进的预测泥沙输运模型仍然是基于一个世纪的老范式，被认为是有缺陷的，和有限的适用性，即使在第一次提出。因此，我们目前在现实环境中预测沉积物输运的能力是有限的。预测沉积物输运取决于了解有多少物质悬浮在流动的水中。目前的沉积物悬浮模型是不准确的，依赖于一个缓慢沉降的颗粒混合模型，在微小的长度尺度上，通过随机流体运动（湍流）。然而，即使在最初开发时也认识到，这些模型是基于对真实世界流动中湍流的作用和规模的有缺陷的假设。此外，最近跨越地球科学和数学的研究强调，混乱，湍流的流体运动并不总是完全随机的。在许多条件下，相干结构可以发展，在大气流动中，已经表明相干结构导致自组织。从混沌中出现的自组织是令人着迷的，它与熵增加的先入为主的观念背道而驰，并暗示着比目前所理解的更高层次的物理复杂性。基于我的多学科背景，涵盖数学和地球科学，并与学术界和工业界的国际专家合作，我将进行第一次研究的发展连贯的结构和自组织的泥沙环境流。为了实现这一目标，该奖学金旨在整合湍流理论和经验研究的最新发展-以使沉积物悬浮物建模方式的逐步变化为目标。这种综合研究不仅至关重要，而且也是及时的，由于过去十年取得的科学和技术进步，现在才有可能。这方面的关键是船体大学的承诺，直接支持发展一个全球独特的分层流设施，研究悬浮泥沙输运。此外，我将推进奖学金研究，以研究现实世界的系统，其中沉积物悬浮液的组成各不相同，使整个应用科学的影响。我将与国际合作者合作，应用这些沉积物输运模型来帮助限制环境流造成的地质灾害风险的幅度和频率。协同奖学金2xPhDs，由船体大学资助，将促进影响，因为学生将应用奖学金研究来解决能源安全，地质灾害恢复力和生态系统管理方面的挑战。与学术界、工业界和政府合作者的直接接触将使整个奖学金产生最大的影响。合作将使我能够自然地在船体大学建立一个环境流体动力学中心，我将利用该中心来发展和扩大奖学金研究，研究建筑环境（例如海上风电场）对环境流动和高浓度流动力学的影响。因此，这个奖学金，以及随后的研究，将使我能够解决当前和未来的地球表面科学的社会挑战，作为环境流体动力学的研究领导者。

The transport of sediment by environmental flows shapes the world around us. Our ability to predict sediment transport is therefore key to a range of disciplines and sectors, and is critical to water, energy and food security. For example, accurate sediment transport prediction is key in the management of natural environments, screening and mitigation of geohazard risks, design and operation of offshore windfarms and exploitation of natural resources. Research in these areas directly addresses key UK and global challenges, including clean and secure energy, geohazard resilience and ecosystem management in changing natural and societal environments. Despite its clear importance, state-of-the-art predictive sediment transport models are still based on a century-old paradigm, recognised as flawed, and of limited applicability, even when first proposed. Therefore, our current ability to predict sediment transport in real-world environments is limited. Predicting sediment transport is dependent on understanding how much material is kept aloft, suspended in flowing water. Current models of sediment suspension are inaccurate, dependent on a model of mixing of slowly-settling particles, over vanishingly small length-scales, by random fluid motion (turbulence). However, recognised even when first developed, these models are based on flawed assumptions of the role and scale of turbulence in real-world flows. Moreover, recent research spanning earth sciences and mathematics highlights that chaotic, turbulent fluid motion is not always entirely random. Under many conditions coherent structures can develop, and in atmospheric flows it has been shown that coherent structures result in self-organisation. The emergence of self-organisation from chaos is fascinating, operating against preconceived notions of increasing entropy, and hinting at higher levels of physical complexity than is currently understood.Building on my multidisciplinary background, covering mathematics and earth sciences, and collaborating with international experts in academia and industry, I will undertake the first study of the development of coherent structures and self-organisation in sediment-laden environmental flows. To achieve this, this Fellowship aims to integrate recent developments in theoretical and empirical research of turbulent flows - with the objective of making a step-change in the way in which sediment suspensions are modelled. Such integrated research is not only crucial, but it is also timely, only now possible due to scientific and technological advances made in the past decade. Critical to this is University of Hull commitment to directly support development of a globally unique stratified flow facility for studying suspended sediment transport. Moreover, I will advance the Fellowship research to study real-world systems, where the composition of sediment suspensions vary, enabling impact across the applied sciences. Working with international collaborators, I will apply these sediment transport models to help constrain the magnitude and frequency of geohazard risk posed by environmental flows.Synergistic to the Fellowship 2xPhDs , funded by the University of Hull, will facilitate impact as students will apply Fellowship research to address challenges in energy security, geohazard resilience and ecosystem management. Direct engagement with academic, industrial and government collaborators will maximise impact throughout the Fellowship. Collaboration will enable me to naturally develop a Centre for Environmental Fluid Dynamics at the University of Hull, which I will use to develop and broaden Fellowship research studying the impact of the built environment, e.g. offshore windfarms, on environmental flows and the mechanics of high-concentration flows. Thus, this Fellowship, and subsequent research, will enable me to address current and future societal challenges in earth surface science as a research leader in environmental fluid dynamics.