(left to right) William Allsop, Leo Franco, Mark Cooker, Ian Prior (ex BloCSnet), Gerald Müller, Tom Bruce
(left to right) William Allsop, Leo Franco, Mark Cooker, Ian Prior (ex BloCSnet), Gerald
Müller, Tom Bruce
William Allsop is Manager, Coastal Structures, at HR Wallingford. He has over 20
years experience in the study of design and performance of rubble mound, blockwork, and
caisson breakwaters, sea walls, revetments, and related shoreline structures. He
also has extensive experience of design, analysis and testing of coastal structures,
including laboratory experience in UK, Italy and Nigeria. He also has wide experience in
directing and conducting research studies, including responsibility as task or sub-task
leader in European research projects under MAST I , II, and III. He has made substantial
input to the development of UK and international research projects for new methods for the
analysis and design of coastal and harbour structures He is currently the leader of the
largest sub-task in the MAST III PROVERBS project. He has contributed to development and
writing of UK national and international design manuals, and standards on coastal and
harbour structures, including CIRIA / CUR 83 (1991), BS 6349 (1984 / 1991).
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Tom Bruce was appointed Lecturer in 1994. He has eight years experience in the development and application of Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) - a flow measurement method capable of giving accurate map of an instantaneous velocities over a two-dimensional section through a flow. He has worked in the field of coastal structures for three years, initially collaborating with Prof. Oumeraci (then at the Franzius Institut, Universität Hannover, now at Leichtweiss Institut, Technische Universität Braunsweig). Since 1996, he has been a part of the PROVERBS project.
PIV flow record of wave impacting vertical wall
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Mark Cooker was appointed Lecturer in the Department of Mathematics in 1992. He has nearly ten years experience of modelling aspects of wave-structure interaction, and over 25 publications in this field. The emphasis of his work has been on developing models of free surface flows undergoing violent motions. These studies concern the sudden velocity changes and associated impulsive pressure fields that occur when a liquid suddenly hits a target. Although the work was stimulated by wave damage to breakwaters, the mathematics has been extended to such problems as liquid - liquid impact, violent flows in pipes and the movement of boulders by breaking waves. One current aim is to predict the wave forces on and within porous breakwaters constructed from concrete units or boulders.. It is intended to use pressure impulse theory in a network of discrete cracks, fractures and channels of fluid undergoing impulsive pressures. Funds have been obtained for a PhD student to work on this problem, and it is hoped that the work will result in further understanding of the types of wave impact that may damage a breakwater.
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Leopoldo Franco has 18 years experience in the study of design and performance of rubble mound, blockwork, and caisson breakwaters, sea walls, revetments, and related harbour and shoreline structures. He also has extensive experience of design, analysis and testing of coastal structures, including laboratory experience in UK, Italy and the Netherlands. He also acts as consultant to large Italian contractors with a consequent practical field experience. He has a wide experience in participating in international research projects under MAST I , II, and III and within PIANC working groups, and contributed to the development of new design criteria of coastal and harbour structures. Within his production of some 100 technical and scientific papers some have been specifically devoted to the historical analysis of breakwater failures, some of blockwork type (eg. Catania, Genoa). He has also dealt with the rehabilitation of the commonest traditional masonry blockwork quay walls. Moreover he is especially interested in the ancient history of coastal structures and some of his papers present ideas for their preservation, renovation and valorization within new attractive “coastal archaeological parks”.
Ancient Greek Seawall at Cnidos, Turkey
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Gerald Müller has been actively involved in wave impact pressures research since 1989. His work includes theoretical investigations, model tests and field measurements of impact pressures. Since 1994, he has been lecturing in hydraulics and structures in Queen’s University Belfast, Civil Engineering Department. His main area of research is the interaction of structures with their environment, focussing on fluid-structure interaction and the propagation of wave impact pressures into cracks. Funds have been obtained from EPSRC to continue and expand the investigation of impact pressure propagation into cracks and cavities in a co-operative project with the University of East Anglia. In the context of fluid structure interaction he is also working on the design of reinforced concrete structures for maximum strength and minimum crack widths, i.e. for increased durability in extreme conditions employing optimised reinforcement geometries (‘adjusted reinforcement’). Other research interests include the development of experimental techniques, such as flow visualisation, low-cost Particle Image Velocimetry and photoelasticity. His research has resulted in the participation of UK and EU funded projects and the publication of more than 30 scientific papers.
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