Heat Transfer in Ocean Environments

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This multidisciplinary research project aims to investigate the effect of water waves on heat transfer phenomena in the ocean. This has many applications in areas including laminar boundary layer stability, biofouling of Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) devices, calibration of satellite data, and coral bleaching. Although waves play a major role in ocean hydrodynamics, very few studies have investigated their effect on heat transfer processes. This project aims to fill this gap by developing and applying analytical and numerical methods for ocean heat transfer.The project involves development of innovative mathematical models to describe the diffusion of temperature in marine environments under the action of waves. The resulting models will be used to investigate how bulk temperature propagates under realistic ocean conditions. This will lead to an integrated view of the heat/wave dynamics related to complex marine environments, with and without ORE devices present.While biofouling analysis of ORE devices lies at the heart of this studentship, the improved understanding of heat transfer by water waves will have a multidisciplinary range of applications. These include the ecology of coral reefs and coral bleaching, the evolution of algal blooms, the spreading of temperature from heat sources such as underwater datacentres, and the calibration of satellite data for underwater measurements, all of which present serious global challenges.In order to increase the impact of the proposed research, the supervisory team will be working closely with experts at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and industrial partners within the EUROSWAC project.