Building-resolved large-eddy simulations of wind and dispersion over a city scale urban area

Supervisory Team:   Zhengtong Xie, Lois Huggett @metoffice

We are in a changing world. This includes climate change, fast developing urban environments where most of the population lives. It is crucial that we are able to understand such a complex system, and therefore to build more reliable predictive tools in time, such as for street airflows, temperature hot spots, concentration of pollutants, chemicals and pathogens in urban areas, to mitigate any impact to be resilient. For more please read the announcement of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2021 (https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2021/summary/), which was awarded “for groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of complex systems”, “for the physical modelling of Earth’s climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming”, and “for the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales

The project is to understand across-scale physical processes in urban areas with a focus on ranging from the metre to kilo-metre scales, and to develop a computational fluid dynamics tool using an open source code and the efficient inflow turbulence generation method developed at Southampton to significantly speed up the numerical simulations, and therefore to bridge gaps in protection in urban environments

Specifically, the objectives of the project are listed below: we will build and test an integrated tool that is much faster than ‘real-time’ for prediction of wind and dispersion over a city scale urban area (about 5km X 5km) in around 1s time resolution and 1m space resolution. We will validate the developed tool for near-field dispersion using the DAPPLE site (Marylebone Rd – Gloucester Pl, London) data where the BT Tower meteorological conditions were used as the boundary conditions to drive the numerical simulations.

You will join a large and flourishing aerodynamics group (http://www.southampton.ac.uk/engineering/research/groups/afm.page) engaged in a wide range of experimental and numerical studies of turbulent flows. The project will benefit from close collaboration with other researchers and with colleagues in the collaborative project. You will be able to access the local and national supercomputers, and work closely with the UK Met Office colleagues through placements and regular meetings

If you wish to discuss any details of the project informally, please contact Dr Zheng-Tong Xie, AFM Research Group, Email: [email protected],

Entry Requirements

A very good undergraduate degree (at least a UK 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent).

Closing date: 31 August 2025. Applications will be considered in the order that they are received, the position will be considered filled when a suitable candidate has been identified.

Funding: We offer a range of funding opportunities for both UK and international students, including Bursaries and Scholarships. For more information please visit PhD Scholarships Doctoral College University of Southampton Funding will be awarded on a rolling basis, so apply early for the best opportunity to be considered.

How To Apply

Applications should be made online. Select programme type (Research), 2024/25, Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering, next page select “PhD Engineering & Environment (Full time)”. In Section 2 of the application form you should insert the name of the supervisor Zhengtong Xie

Applications should include:

Curriculum Vitae

Two reference letters

Degree Transcripts to date

For further information please contact: [email protected]