Hydrodynamic optimisation in hydraulic and environmental engineering design

许多涉及流-结构相互作用的工程结构的设计往往试图减少或增加流的某些特性。这方面的例子包括涉及工业或环境应用中的混合问题（例如水和/或废水处理厂，河流和河口的环境流动），以及流动可能对基础设施的稳定性构成风险的地方（例如桥梁和其他基础设施的地基的负荷和冲刷）。在流动是设计性能核心的问题中，重点可能会从“改变”转向“优化”流动条件，这需要大量的实验和/或计算工作。这个项目将研究如何在水力和环境工程设计中优化湍流的特定特征。作为项目的一部分，成功的候选人将有机会研究从传统河流工程结构到环境工程中的新应用等几个问题的应用。学生将有机会使用最先进的实验设施，包括大型循环水槽、波浪池和大型藻类回旋池模型（用于培养微藻的明渠系统）。他们还将接受计算流体动力学（CFD）方面的培训，并获得南安普顿大学杰出的超级计算机Iridis 5的使用权。该项目是南安普顿大学和工业界合作的一部分，旨在提高藻类跑道池塘的性能。因此，该学生将有机会获得世界上最大的藻类生产设施之一的数据。应聘者必须具有工程、物理或应用数学的一等学位，对流体动力学和环境工程感兴趣。有较强的编程能力也将是一个优势。

The design of many engineering structures involving flow-structure interactions often attempts to either reduce or augment certain characteristics of the flow. Examples of this include problems involving mixing in industrial or environmental applications (e.g. water and/or wastewater treatment plants, environmental flows in rivers and estuaries) and where the flow may pose risk to the stability of infrastructure (e.g. loadings and scour at the foundations of bridges and other infrastructure). In problems where the flow is central to the performance of the design, the focus may shift from 'altering' to 'optimising' the flow conditions, an endeavour that requires substantial experimental and/or computational efforts. This project will investigate how to optimise specific characteristics of a turbulent flow within hydraulic and environmental engineering design. As part of the project the successful candidate will have the chance to investigate applications to several problems spanning from traditional river engineering structures to novel applications in environmental engineering. The student will have access to state-of-the-art experimental facilities including large recirculating flumes, wave basins and a large-scale model of an algae raceway pond (open channel systems used to cultivate microalgae). They will also receive training in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and gain access to the University of Southampton's outstanding supercomputer Iridis 5.This project is part of a collaboration between the University of Southampton and industry to improve the performance of algae raceway ponds. As a result, the student will have access to data from one of the largest algae production facilities in the world.The successful candidate will have a first class degree in Engineering, Physics or Applied Mathematics and interest in fluid dynamics and environmental engineering. Strong programming skills will also be an advantage.