Flocculation and deep-sea mining plumes

Deep-sea mining Industry and academia are presently investigating the potential of deep-seamining for valuable resources such as poly-metallic nodules. Nevertheless, the process of manoeuvring, excavating, and processing these resources poses a threat to the deep-sea environment through the generation of plumes of suspended fine-grained solids,...

Numerical Investigation of Turbidity Flows Generated by Polymetallic Nodules Mining

The depletion of terrestrial mineral deposits and the increasing demand for minerals are causing disruptions in the global supply chain. The shift towards renewable technologies requires significant quantities of metals used, for example, in the production of electric vehicles and wind turbines, putting additional strain on the supply chain. The...

Anthropogenic effects on the hydro-morphological development of turbid estuaries

Estuarine sediment dynamics involves estuarine hydrodynamics, sediment transport, and morphology, and strongly influence ecosystem dynamics and sustainability. In the current geological epoch, referred to as the Anthropocene, human activities are exerting increasing impacts on the environment on all scales, changing hydrodynamics, sediment...

Breaching Flow Slides and the Associated Turbidity Currents: Large-Scale Experiments and 3D Numerical Modelling

Underwater slope failure is a common problem in the fields of geotechnical, dredging and hydraulic engineering, posing a major risk to submerged infrastructure and flood defences along coasts, rivers, and lakes. The term ‘flow slide’ refers to a specific, complex failure mechanism of underwater slopes, which occurs when a substantial amount of...

Geological Controls on Depositional Architecture of Turbiditic Deposits from Stepped Slope-to-Basin Profiles

Deep-water siliciclastic systems are of great societal relevance as their deposits<br/>in subsurface store hundreds of billions of barrels of hydrocarbons in different sedimentary basins worldwide. The sediment density flows that form these systems, termed turbidity currents, are capable of destroying subsea installations, such as...

On the modelling of the unstable breaching process

Breaching is an important production mechanism for stationary suction dredgers. It is a process occurring in submerged sandy slopes, which mostly occurs in dense sandy soils with a low permeability. The process is initiated by the formation of a slope under water, whose angle is steeper than the internal friction angle, called the breach face....

Three-dimensional model for estuarine turbidity maxima in tidally dominated estuaries: An idealized modeling approach

High-resolution deep-tissue quantitative optical tomography

Optical imaging is one of the primary tools in biological and medical research. Over the years many different optical imaging modalities have been developed that have driven the imaging performance in terms of image resolution, contrast, imaging time, and maximum allowed sample size. The goal of this work is to develop techniques for 3D optical...

A process-based, idealized study of salt and sediment dynamics in well-mixed estuaries

Estuaries are important ecosystems accommodating a large variety of living species. Estuaries are also important to people by their demand of freshwater for drinking, irrigation, and industry. Due to natural changes and human activities, the estuarine water quality, influenced by both salinity and turbidity (the cloudiness or haziness of water),...

Turbid Flows and Their Deposits on Slopes with Minibasins: A Modelling Approach

Passive continental margins display a great diversity of seafloor bathymetries induced by gravity driven extensional faulting and compressional folding, as well as diapiric movements of salt or mud. In many diapirically controlled settings, slope bathymetries are complicated and characterized by numerous ridges, trenches and minibasins such as...

3D CFD modelling of overflow dredging plumes

3D CFD simulations, lab experiments and field measurements are used to get more understanding of the turbulent near field overflow dredging plume mixing. The focus has been on the most often used dredging vessel: a trailing suction hopper dredger (TSHD). Near field overflow dredging plume mixing is important because it determines the far field...

Optimisation-based wavefront sensorless adaptive optics for microscopy

Microscopy is an essential tool for life sciences. Thanks to the development of confocal and multiphoton microscopy, scientists are able to obtain high-resolution 3D views of biological specimens. Nevertheless, spatial variations in the index of refraction within specimens cause aberrations that degrade the quality of the 3D views. One can...

On sedimentation processes in a stratified estuarine system

Trapping of sediment in tidal estuaries

An estuary is an ideal habitat for various aquatic species. At the same time, estuaries and adjacent rivers are used as fast navigation routes between the coastal and inland territories. The fast industrial development and the subsequent growth of cities and trade have led to large-scale anthropogenic alterations of estuarine systems. Estuaries...

Process-based modelling of turbidity-current hydrodynamics and sedimentation

The production potential of deep-water reservoirs is primarily determined by rock bulk volume, porosity and permeability. Quantification of the geometry and spatial distribution of reservoir sands in deep-water deposits can provide crucial information to assess sand body volume, connectivity and the distribution of permeability baffles. This...