PhD in Civil Engineering

Consider a major global environmental issue. Perhaps you thought about ocean plastic pollution, air pollution, or sea level rise leading to coastal erosion. In this project, you will contribute to this goal through experimental, theoretical, numerical, or combined approaches, depending on your skills and interests. Many environmental challenges fundamentally stem from the interactions between fluids and particles. For instance, ocean plastic pollution involves the movement of plastics of various sizes, densities, and shapes—ranging from macro- to microplastics—transported by rivers and coastal waters with very different hydrodynamic characteristics. River flows, for instance, are often dominated by wall turbulence, while coastal waters are shaped by surface waves. Similarly, coastal erosion arises from the motion of sediment grains such as sand or gravel, driven by overlying turbulent flows. Thus, sediment erosion can be understood as an interaction between a complex-shaped particle and a turbulent boundary layer. These challenges share a common factor: the complex and fascinating interactions between fluid mechanics and particles of varying sizes and properties that shape many environmental processes. A deeper understanding of these mechanisms is essential for developing effective engineering strategies to address and mitigate related global environmental problems. In this project, you will contribute to this goal. You will join a diverse, dynamic and expanding Environmental Fluid Mechanics research group at Southampton, benefiting from access to world-class, recently upgraded experimental facilities.