Research Projects

Postgraduate research topics currently available are listed on the following Research theme(s):

• Tyndall Manchester

Research grants

Research specialisms

• Coastal Engineering
• Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
• Smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH)

Research themes and Research centers

• Modelling and simulation
• Offshore energy and coastal engineering
• Tyndall Centre

Peter Stansby has been Professor of Hydrodynamics at Manchester University since 1990.

He obtained his BA in Engineering and his PhD in Aerodynamics at Cambridge University. He then worked for Atkins Research and Development near London on wind and offshore engineering for two years. On moving to Manchester University in 1980, his early research interests were in wave and current loading on offshore structures, specializing in vortex-induced vibrations. Since around 1990 he has worked on coastal hydrodynamics, mainly in relation to shallow-water flows and surf zone waves.

Since 2000 he has been involved with the Tyndall Centre on the Coastal programme. He now leads the Coastal Flooding component of the EPSRC/EA programme Flood Risk Management Research Consortium (FRMRC2). Since 2004 he has become involved with wave energy devices, developing a particular robust point absorber, the Manchester Bobber, supported by the Carbon Trust and six industrial partners. His research on renewable energy now extends to marine current turbines, funded by EdF and ETI, and offshore wind turbines, funded by Garrad Hassan. The University of Manchester has recently become a partner in the Energy Technology Institute for work on marine current turbines. Since 2005 he has become active in the novel numerical method SPH (smoothed particle hydrodynamics) which shows great promise for violent surface flows.

He has been an investigator on over 30 grants and contracts, mainly from EPSRC. He has been an associate editor for the ASCE Journal of Hydraulic Engineering and on the editorial board of Applied Ocean Research. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Institution of Civil Engineers. He has published over 80 papers in international refereed journals.

• Environmental flows: tidal flows, pollution dispersion, sediment transport
• Coastal hydrodynamics: wave mechanics, surf zone processes, flooding
• Shallow-water hydrodynamics: numerical model development, flooding, dam breaks
• Offshore hydrodynamics: wave forces, flow-induced vibrations, slam forces
• Numerical modelling and experimental verification of above areas