PhD Studentship in: Defining the Outfall Mixing Zone

The University of Sheffield, Sheffield Water Centre in collaboration with Severn Trent Water and the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Water Infrastructure and Resilience.

PhD Studentship in: Defining the Outfall Mixing Zone

Stipend: This post will fully cover university tuition and provide a tax-free stipend for Home and Overseas students of £24,000 per year.

Closing Date for Applications: 30th June 2024

Start Date: 30th September 2024 (contract duration 4 years)

Increased public interest and concern with the state of UK rivers and open water bodies has focussed attention on the impact of both treated wastewater discharges and Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs). In response to these concerns, the UK Government’s Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs published Technical Guidance for Sewerage Undertakers (August 2023), on the Continuous Water Quality Monitoring Programme. This requires water companies to monitor, at least every 15 mins, the water quality both upstream and downstream of storm overflows and sewage disposal works. The guidance states that downstream monitors should be located at “the point of cross-sectional mixing” in the river channel.

Complete cross-sectional mixing is rarely achieved in the natural environment. Therefore, adopting a definition of well-mixed concentrations having differences of less than +/- 5% from the area mean concentration may be appropriate. For spatially uniform, straight river channels, without vegetation, this is around 100x the channel width downstream of the outfall.

This project will develop an assessment tool, using 2D numerical modelling, for estimating the distance to complete cross-sectional mixing and explore the uncertainty due to both river features and variable flows. To validate the tool, we will collect comprehensive field data describing river bathymetry and velocity distributions, together with concentration distributions obtained from fluorescent tracer studies. This field work will also provide an opportunity to evaluate the use of drones to describe the receiving flow field and assess alternative approaches to rapidly assess the mixing zone.

The project will aim to provide assurance on regulatory compliance, with simplified decision-making, leading to increased public confidence. Further, it should provide confirmation of monitoring locations, leading to standardisation across the industry.

The research programme to be completed in this project will be undertaken as part of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Water Infrastructure and Resilience (CDT WIRe). WIRe is a collaboration between the three leading UK Universities in water resilient infrastructure. Students will benefit from a bespoke training scheme delivered by world leading experts from academia and industry, access to world leading experimental and computational facilities as well as close and regular contact with industry and end user partners. WIRe is committed to promoting a diverse and inclusive community, and offers a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies. For further information on the WIRe scheme visit the web site at: https://cdtwire.com/

The project will be supervised by Professor Ian Guymer and Professor Virginia Stovin in collaboration with partners from Severn Trent Water. There will be generous opportunities to travel to visit our academic and industry partners in both the UK and overseas.

Eligibility Criteria

This studentship is subject to standard RCUK eligibility criteria. It is open to all students with Home or Overseas residency (subject to a maximum quota of overseas students per training grant).

The selection criteria for the position are:

• A good honours degree (or equivalent experience) in Engineering, Physical Science, Mathematics, Computer Science or a related subject.

• Enthusiasm for research, and in particular for field work and model development.

• Good level of written and oral communication skills, as appropriate for disseminating research and communicating with project partners.

• Willingness to collaborate with other researchers, industry and end-users.

• Aptitude for research in a relevant area (e.g. experimental design, monitoring systems, data/time series analysis, numerical modelling) as evidenced by previous experience.

How to apply

Interested candidates should email a covering letter and their Curriculum

Vitae to Miss Lindsay Hopcroft (cdtwireapps@sheffield.ac.uk). For information and informal enquiries please contact: Professor Ian Guymer, i.guymer@sheffield.ac.uk or Professor Virginia Stovin, v.stovin@sheffield.ac.uk.