We use computational fluid dynamics, coastal-ocean models and data analysis to investigate the movement of water and its consequences for people, ecosystems and infrastructure.
Our research sits at the intersection of environmental fluid mechanics and computational engineering. We develop methods, validate them against observations where possible, and apply them to questions where better understanding of flow can improve a decision.
Resource assessment, array design, operational control and environmental effects of tidal and other marine-energy technologies.
Hydrodynamics, mixing, sediment and water-quality processes in changing natural systems.
Reliable, scalable and reproducible modelling tools for scientific and engineering applications.
Efficient methods for comparing design options and communicating the confidence and limits of model results.
Browse E-COM’s research outputs, including journal papers, conference proceedings and book chapters.
The following projects illustrate our work across digital twins, open modelling workflows and marine energy decision support.
Integrated design for tidal-stream energy · 2024–2028
A multidisciplinary programme connecting hydrodynamics, metocean resource, control, materials, fatigue, environmental modelling and reliability to support lower-cost, more responsible tidal-energy systems.
Horizon Europe · 2025–2029
Developing a Digital Ocean Twin for European and Pan-Arctic seas, combining ocean, wave, biogeochemical and nearshore models to assess climate impacts and adaptation options.
EC Horizon 2020 · 2022–2025 · Completed
Supported hydro-environmental modelling for marine and maritime digital-twin pilots, with applications to ocean energy and data management.
Accelerating Tidal Array Research Integration for Marine Spatial Planning · EPSRC IAA · Completed
Improved turbine representation, spatial constraints and model calibration against MeyGen data to support array design, environmental assessment and future tidal-energy research.
EPSRC ORE Supergen FlexiFund · 2021–2022 · Completed
Developed an open framework, data and methods for reliable, calibrated numerical simulations of dynamic coastal regions.
UKRI/NERC Industrial Innovation Fellowship · 2018–2021 · Completed
Developed operational and spatial-planning methods for assessing tidal-energy resource and environmental trade-offs.
We use and contribute to open-source software, datasets and workflows that make hydro-computational research inspectable, reusable and extensible. These tools support our modelling and help us share improvements with the wider community.
An open-source coastal-ocean model built on Firedrake. We use and contribute to Thetis for hydrodynamic, transport and marine-energy applications.
An open-source mesh-generation workflow for geospatial and coastal-ocean modelling. We use and contribute to qmesh3 in preparing computational domains.
An automated finite-element framework used as the computational foundation for Thetis and other model development. We use Firedrake in our hydro-computational workflows.
An established suite of free-surface hydraulic and coastal modelling tools. We use TELEMAC alongside other models for comparison and complementary analysis.
