About
Dr Michael Kirkpatrick-
Michael conduscts research in the main area of environmental fluid mechanics. .
About
Professor Steven Armfield-
My work on natural convection boundary layers has made a substantial contribution to the understanding of the mechanism of flow initiation and transition. I carried out the first simulation of open stratified cavity flow, allowing the basic bifurcation mechanism to be isolated and also carried out the first investigation of weak fountain flow, leading to new scaling formulae describing the basic structure of weak fountain flow based on control parameters.
Mixing in reservoir side-arms
Summary
This project is a collaborative effort involving researchers at The University of Sydney and James Cook University in North Queensland. The project will involve fieldwork, laboratory experiments and numerical simulations. Students working at the University of Sydney will focus primarily on the development of a high-resolution computational fluid dynamics research code to model the natural convection flows in reservoirs. The code will be run on state-of-the-art parallel computing facilities at the University of Sydney. Students will also work with students at James Cook University on the laboratory and fieldwork components of the project.
Supervisor(s)
Dr Michael Kirkpatrick, Professor Steven Armfield
Research Location
Aerospace, Mechanical & Mechatronic Engineering
Program Type
Synopsis
Flows into reservoirs often carry nutrients, pollutants, biological materials and suspended particles. These are redistributed into the central parts by a range of dynamical processes. One important process is the lateral circulation between the near shore and central regions induced by diurnal heating and cooling and its interaction with the varying depth of the shore region. This results in lateral temperature gradients, which lead to natural convection. The details of this flow in a three-dimensional reservoir sidearm and the subsequent transport of particles in the flow are the subject of this project. The output of this research will have direct application to water quality management.
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Keywords
mixing, natural convection, reservoir, water quality, turbulence, Computational Fluid Dynamics, large eddy simulation, direct numerical simulation, parallel computing
Opportunity ID
The opportunity ID for this research opportunity is: 400
Other opportunities with Dr Michael Kirkpatrick
- Purging of density stabilised saline river ponds by freshwater overflows
- Modelling small scale processes in the atmospheric boundary layer
- Investigation and optimisation of displacement ventilation and cooling systems
Other opportunities with Professor Steven Armfield