4 year scholarship: year 1 PG Dip; year 2 PhD. PhD title: Quantifying Enhanced Mixing of Stratified Shelf Seas by Offshore Wind Infrastructure

尽管它的重要性，许多地球物理系统，包括大气和世界的海洋，仍然存在重大的开放挑战，我们的基本理解湍流分层流。虽然迄今为止海上风力开发主要是在混合良好的非分层沿海沃茨中建造的，但海上风力部门的增长现在需要首次大规模工业化分层陆架海。在这些新的环境中，部门的增长和发展是必要的，以满足英国的2050年净零碳的承诺，但海上风电基础设施的影响，人为混合源分层陆架海，尚未被量化。分层是一个关键的系统控制在陆架海。垂直密度变化抑制能量、营养物、CO2、热量、盐度和沉积物的垂直输送。因此，分层对陆架海的物理和生态系统都至关重要，人为混合的潜在影响很大。此外，流经基础设施的水流的湍流混合对基础施加恒定的拖曳力，该拖曳力在分层沃茨中会发生变化。需要了解分层对海上可再生能源结构的混合和水动力负荷的影响，以便为环境影响评估以及未来的固定和浮动平台设计提供信息。至关重要的是，环境工程为基础的解决方案，现在开发，使可持续和快速的大规模扩展的离岸可再生能源到分层陆架seas.New理解湍流混合分层流过去的基础设施，需要帮助未来的设计和量化环境影响，从单个涡轮机阵列规模。为了应对这些挑战，成功的候选人将开发海上风电场湍流混合的局部尺度海洋学计算流体动力学模型。模型将被用来量化环境影响，并施加负荷分层流通过不同的基础设施。这个博士将解决三个关键的研究问题：风力涡轮机基础设施如何影响密度分层和材料运输？密度分层对海上风力基础设施的水动力载荷有什么作用？海上风电基础设施对密度分层的影响是否可以通过新的基础设计来减轻？方法：数值研究与ORE Catapult合作。没有道德问题。

Despite its importance to many geophysical systems, including the atmosphere and the world's oceans, there remain significant open challenges to our fundamental understanding of turbulent stratified flows. Whilst offshore wind developments to-date have predominately been constructed in well-mixed unstratified coastal waters, growth of the offshore wind sector now requires the first ever large-scale industrialisation of stratified shelf seas. Sector growth and development in these new environments is necessary to meet the UK's 2050 net zero carbon commitments, yet the impact of offshore wind infrastructure, a source of anthropogenic mixing to stratified shelf seas, has not yet been quantified.Stratification is a critical system control in shelf seas. Vertical density variations act to suppress vertical transport of energy, nutrients, CO2, heat, salinity, and sediment. Stratification is therefore crucial to both the physics and ecosystems of shelf seas, and the potential impact of anthropogenic mixing is significant. In addition, turbulent mixing of flow past infrastructure imposes constant drag forces on foundations which will vary in stratified waters. Understanding the impact of stratification on mixing from, and hydrodynamic loading of, offshore renewable energy structures is needed to inform Environmental Impact Assessments as well as future fixed and floating platform designs. It is vital that environment-engineering based solutions are developed now to enable sustainable and rapid large-scale expansion of offshore renewable energy into stratified shelf seas.New understanding of turbulent mixing in stratified flow past infrastructure is required to aid both future design and to quantify environmental impact, from single turbine to array scale. To address these challenges the successful candidate will develop local scale oceanographic computational fluid dynamic models of turbulent mixing in offshore windfarms. Models will be used to quantify environmental impact, and imposed loads from stratified flow past different infrastructure.This PhD will address three key research questions:How does wind turbine infrastructure affect density stratification and material transport?What role does density stratification have on hydrodynamic loading of offshore wind infrastructure?Can the influence of offshore wind infrastructure on density stratification be mitigated against through novel foundation design?Methodology: Numerical Investigation In collaboration with ORE Catapult. No ethical issues.