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

环境水流对泥沙的输送塑造了我们周围的世界。因此，我们预测泥沙运移的能力是一系列学科和部门的关键，对水、能源和粮食安全至关重要。例如，准确的泥沙运移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应对英国和全球的关键挑战，包括清洁和安全的能源、地质灾害复原力以及在不断变化的自然和社会环境中的生态系统管理。尽管具有明显的重要性，但最先进的泥沙预测模型仍然基于一个有百年历史的范例，被认为是有缺陷的，即使在最初提出时，其适用性也是有限的。因此，我们目前预测真实环境中泥沙运移的能力是有限的。预测泥沙运移取决于了解有多少物质被保持在高空，悬浮在流动的水中。目前的泥沙悬浮模型是不准确的，依赖于随机流体运动(湍流)在极小的长度尺度上混合缓慢沉降的颗粒的模型。然而，即使在最初开发时就认识到，这些模型是基于对现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、湍急的流体运动并不总是完全随机的。在许多情况下，相干结构可以发展，在大气流动中，相干结构会导致自组织。从混沌中出现自组织是很吸引人的，它违背了熵增加的先入为主的概念，并暗示了比目前所理解的更高水平的物理复杂性。以我的多学科背景为基础，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，我将开展第一项关于含泥沙环境流中相干结构和自组织发展的研究。为了实现这一目标，该研究金旨在整合湍流理论和经验研究的最新发展，目标是对泥沙悬浮物的建模方式进行阶段性改变。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。对此至关重要的是，赫尔大学承诺直接支持开发一种全球独一无二的分层流设施，用于研究悬浮泥沙的输移。此外，我将推进研究金研究，以研究现实世界中沉积物悬浮物的组成不同的系统，使其能够在应用科学中产生影响。与国际合作者合作，我将应用这些沉积物传输模型来帮助限制环境流构成的地质灾害风险的大小和频率。由赫尔大学资助的协作性2xPhD将促进影响，因为学生将应用奖学金研究来应对能源安全、地质灾害复原力和生态系统管理方面的挑战。与学术、工业和政府合作者的直接接触将最大限度地提高整个奖学金的影响。合作将使我能够自然地在赫尔大学建立一个环境流体动力学中心，我将利用该中心发展和扩大奖学金研究，研究建造环境(例如海上风电场)对环境流动和高浓度流动机制的影响。因此，这项研究以及随后的研究将使我能够作为环境流体动力学的研究带头人，应对地球表面科学目前和未来的社会挑战。

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.