MSCA
Doctoral Network
Apply for a PhD position
Are you interested in contributing to our understanding of coastal hazards?
Are you interested in numerical simulations and wave experiments?
Contribute to making our coasts, rivers and cities safer by applying for a PhD fellowship
Please use these forms for each application:
Fellow 1
Wind-wave coupling for improved modelling of coastal flooding
We will investigate modeling fidelity of the atmospheric forcing and its influence on coastal flooding. This is to be done by developing a coupled wave-wind model. By coupling a Boussinesq or Green-Naghdi wave model, able to resolve wave run-up on steep slopes and breakwaters, to a meso-scale Navier-Stokes model in generalized coordinates describing the atmospheric flow the wind forcing is directly given by the pressure working on the free surface. This will significantly improve the nearshore computational capabilities with respect to atmospheric forcing and will reduce the uncertainties associated with surface drag coefficients.
Advisor: Claes Ekilsson, Aalborg University
Deadline passed
Fellow 2
Stable simulation methods for structured multi-block grids
Wave simulation codes are often based on finite difference/volume methods on Cartesian meshes that do not conform with the geometry of the water basin; land and islands are modeled as dry zones. The advantage of this approach is the simple data structure that allows efficient use of computational resources. However, for problems where narrow channels, with large land areas in between, connect basins of water this is unnecessarily memory consuming. By only discretizing channels, and not land in between, the method becomes less memory intensive. At the same time, it is advantageous to retain the structured memory layout of structured grids. Hence, we will port the methods to curvilinear grids, that capture channels, and interface these grids with the grids for the main water basins. That is, we will use a structured multi-block technique. By using the well-established summations-by-parts simultaneous approximation term schemes.
Advisor: Magnus Svärd, University of Bergen
Fellow 3
Development of phase-resolved operational wave forecasting for sites with highly irregular bathymetry
This PhD project focuses on the characterization of the impact along the shoreline of the wave field’s spatial variability induced by remarkable bathymetric heterogeneities such as a coastal submarine canyon. For that purpose, a phase-resolving numerical modeling tool will be deployed in the Capbreton area using the recent BARRACUDA Boussinesq-type code developed at the University of Pau. The model will have to be extended with a directional wavemaker for strongly variable boundary conditions, to provide a robust and realistic representation of the wave field as input for the computation over a large coastal segment. Taking benefit of the parallelization of the code on GPU, a large range of scenarios will be computed to characterize critical configurations in terms of wave run-up and the induced marine flooding along the shoreline, with a focus on the role of wave focusing and phase coherence mechanisms in the configurations.
Advisor: Matthias Delpey, SUEZ - Rivage ProTech. For more info and
Deadline passed.
Fellow 4
Tracing ocean swell in fjord systems
In connection with a partially floating bridge to be constructed over Bjørnafjorden as part of the E39 project in Norway, loads on structures due to wave action in the fjord need to be understood. Swell waves have been identified in buoy measurements in a campaign conducted on behalf of the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, but traditional phase-averaged models such as SWAN have been shown not to accurately model these waves. These problems may be addressed by phase-resolving models, but these commonly suffer from various instabilities. A new Boussinesq model is available that is stable in the presence of steep bathymetries. This model will significantly improve the nearshore computational capabilities with respect to sharp changes in the bathymetry and will lead to improvements in future projects for the NPRA. The model will be run on a large domain (30km x 30km is required).
Advisor: Henrik Kalisch, University of Bergen
Deadline passed.
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Fellow 5
Flow patterns of pollutants and microplastics in estuaries
Sea level rise must be considered in future predictions of pollutant circulation and distribution, and ocean currents and sediment transport also influence the redistribution of pollutants locally and globally. However, there is a lack of knowledge in fundamental research, namely advection, diffusion and dispersion of water particles having different pollutant concentration, the influence of turbulence, and the kinetic description of the chemical reactions.
Objectives in this project are to understand the potential threats on eco-hydraulics in fluvial and coastal environments due to heavy metals, pesticides, detergents etc., and to be able to describe and predict the transport and fate of pollutants, sediments and microplastics in hydraulic environmental models and their connections
Prof. Rita Carvalho, University of Coimbra, Portugal
Deadline passed.
Fellow 6
Multiphysics shallow-water models for river and estuary dynamics
Rivers and estuaries are complex, interconnected systems which are subject to a multitude of physical, chemical and biological effects. Proper maintenance includes monitoring water levels, flow rates, water quality and sediment status, and effective management depends on real-time measurements as well as accurate numerical tools. The aim of this project is the development of computational models enabling the simulation of flow dynamics over erodible beds with variably saturated subsurface flows as well as dry and wet granular flows. In particular, a numerical 2D coupled surface-subsurface flow model will be extended to handle a moving bed, which affects both the surface and the subsurface computational domain. While standard practice today is the use of dedicated uncoupled models for river flow, sediment transport, recent advances in numerical techniques and GPU implementations enable an integrated and comprehensive multi-physics model encompassing and linking all the effects mentioned above
Advisor: Prof. Pilar Garcia-Navarro, University of Zaragoza, Spain
Deadline passed.
For further info, please download:
Fellow 7
​Advancing Flood Modeling: Integrating High-Order Numerical Methods with Sub-Cell Limiting Techniques for Accurate Urban Flooding Prediction
The objective of this PhD is to develop a modeling framework for urban flooding simulations that integrates precise representations of topography and built structures using the Discontinuous Galerkin (DG) numerical method. Ensuring high-resolution descriptions of both coastlines and structures, with accuracies of maybe less than a meter, is crucial for accurately depicting flooding dynamics. The primary challenge lies in managing complex and irregular bathymetric data represented by polynomials on unstructured grids. This framework must effectively handle interactions between irregular bathymetric data and flooding fronts (wet/dry transitions), potentially incorporating non-submerged floating structures. A well-balanced scheme is imperative to avoid spurious and non-physical waves arising from numerical discretization-induced bathymetric variations. The idea is to explore sub-cell models and sub-cell resolution strategies combined with some nonlinear numerical method. For example one avenue of exploration lies in the usage of sub-cell approximations that may allow to construct well balanced schemes preserving the high resolution. Further more the integration of sub cell techniques can be instrumental in maintaining water positivity around wet/dry areas.
It is known that high order DG methods may produce spurious oscillations in the presence of discontinuities or steeply varying gradients, i.e. Gibbs phenomenon a possible way to treat this is the sub cell nonlinear approximations for the topography to avoid these spurious oscillations. Furthermore, the integration of individual cell models could be extended to deal with friction phenomena and adapting to the presence of floating structures, allowing an integrated simulation framework that captures a variety of real-world scenarios. Anticipated outcomes include improvement on academic tests, and applications in operational context to realistic events and experiments from other partners benefiting from consortium data. The resulting numerical scheme will be applied to a case study of urban flooding, with comparisons made against experimental data.
Advisor: Dr. Maria Kazolea, INRIA, Bordeaux, France.
Deadline passed.
Fellow 8
Modelling flows in estuarine urban environments
Although disregarded in classical urban-flood simulations, the role of courtyards, urban furniture, parked cars, and other urban irregularities, are relevant for people safety in both evacuation and rescue operations. This project will be dedicated to both numerical and physical modelling of urban flows in an estuarine urban environment. In particular, this study will involve physical modeling of urban flow through irregularities and validation of a shallow-water solver and setting up a modelling chain to link riverine and urban environments. Such a modeling chain will be reached through coupling of a shallow-water solver that models interactions between river and sea in an ideal estuarine area. A real-world case using the data available in the study site of Senigallia will be studied.
Advisor: Prof. Maurizio Brocchini, Università Politecnica della Marche, Italy
Deadline passed.
Fellow 9
Assessment of surface water interaction and pollutant dispersion between urban watershed, canals and coastal flows
An appropriate integrated urban wastewater management should consider three main components simultaneously: the sewer system, the Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) and the receiving water. Maximum performance of the whole system can only be obtained by considering the current state of the receiving water body (e.g., temperature, biological oxygen demand and levels of ammonia and dissolved oxygen), operating the sewer system according to the current state of the WWTP. The current state of the art does not include systems which fully couple all components. This project focusses on the development, calibration, and validation of an integrated hydraulic and biochemical model able to simulate the complete urban coastal wastewater system including the flow dynamics and the biological, chemical and physical reactions taking place in the sewer system, the WWTP and the receiving waters. The model will be able to reproduce water levels, flow, velocity, and water quality at every point along the whole urban wastewater system and the receiving water.
Advisor: Prof. Pilar Garcia-Navarro, University of Zaragoza, Spain
For further info, please download:
Deadline passed.
Fellow 10
Mixing and wave-driven transport of pollutants in the surf zone
Coastal waters are the receptacle for pollutants from estuarine watersheds, e.g. fecal indicator bacteria or plastic debris discharged by rivers or by sewer systems during heavy rainfall events. Those discharges occur mostly in the nearshore area, where waves may strongly impact dispersion processes. The current state-of-the-art in predicting nearshore freshwater and contaminant transport utilizes phase-averaged models which have limited ability to accurately represent detailed features of wave and surf zone dynamics. Estimating the transport and diffusion of pollutants such as bacteria, in the nearshore domain requires higher-resolution wave models.
While the present use of phase-resolving models in operational forecasts focuses on wave-driven hazards such as run-up and inundation, such an approach can also be used to compute pollutant transport in the nearshore zone. In this context, the project targets the extension of a Boussinesq-type model to represent the dispersion of dissolved contaminants and solid pollutants. Specific cases will deal with fecal bacteria and solid pollutants. The model will be applied to pollutant transport computations, and realistic historical bacterial pollution events recorded along the Basque coast (SW France) will be reproduced with the model to characterize nearshore currents and their contribution to the overall diffusion and distribution of pollutants (hindcast computations). The transport of solid floating material like plastic debris will be studied with the modelling tool. Comparison with drifter experiments will be performed to assess the model.Special attention should be paid to both shoreward transport in the surfzone and resulting stranding of the debris, as well as to the mechanisms controlling the seaward export of material from the surfzone to the offshore.
Advisor: Prof. Volker Roeber, University of Pau, Anglet campus, France
Deadline passed.