Turbulence Physics
The flow of water (and other fluids such as air) in nature is usually turbulent. We use experimental and numerical methods to study turbulence processes at a range of scales, and for both natural and idealised geometries.
Particular areas of expertise
- The velocity gradient tensor in turbulence
- The properties of nonequilibrium turbulence
- The development of practical ways to obtain flow structure information from single-point velocity data
- Flow through and over vegetative canopies
- Flow affected by bed-forms
- Boundary-layer structure
- Synthetic data methodologies for hypothesis testing turbulence
Academics
Recent research highlights
- In 2017, our work with colleagues at Southampton and Melbourne on the structure of turbulent boundary layers won the 2017 Fluid Dynamics Research prize.
- Since 2017 we have been the co-lead of the EPSRC-funded Special Interest Group on Nonequilibrium Turbulence with Aeronautics at Imperial College London.
Case Study
Our research in collaboration with Cambridge, Durham, UCL and the Swiss Avalanche Research Institute and funded by NERC and EPSRC, has resulted in the development of a high resolution snow avalanche radar imaging system, installed in Switzerland. This is providing new insights into the dynamics of snow avalanches.
This work was one of twenty stands to feature at the 2012 Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition, one of the UK’s largest public science events, with some 17 000 visitors including Fellows of the Royal Society, and members of both houses of parliament.
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