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

尽管它对包括大气和世界海洋在内的许多地球物理系统都很重要，但我们对湍流分层流的基本理解仍然存在重大的开放挑战。虽然到目前为止，海上风电开发主要是在混合良好的无分层沿海水域建造的，但海上风电部门的增长现在需要首次大规模的分层大陆架海洋工业化。在这些新环境中，行业的增长和发展对于实现英国2050年净零碳排放的承诺是必要的，但海上风电基础设施的影响尚未被量化，这是人为混合分层大陆架海洋的来源。分层是陆架海的重要系统控制。垂直密度变化抑制能量、营养物质、二氧化碳、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是至关重要的，人为混合的潜在影响是重大的。此外，流过基础设施的湍流混合对基础施加恒定的阻力，这种阻力在分层水域中会有所不同。需要了解分层对海上可再生能源结构的混合和水动力载荷的影响，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。现在，开发基于环境工程的解决方案，使近海可再生能源能够在分层大陆架海域的可持续和快速大规模扩张，这一点至关重要。为了帮助未来的设计和量化从单个涡轮机到阵列规模的环境影响，需要对过去基础设施分层流动中的湍流混合有新的认识。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。模型将用于量化环境影响，并从分层流经过不同的基础设施施加负荷。本博士将解决三个关键研究问题：风力涡轮机基础设施如何影响密度分层和物质运输？密度分层对海上风电基础设施水动力负荷有何影响？海上风电基础设施对密度分层的影响能否通过新型基础设计得到缓解？方法论：数值调查与ORE弹射器合作。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.