Prof. Alan G. DAVIES

Coastal Sediment Transport Modelling Group at Bangor : click herefor web page.

Academic background

BSc. Engineering, A.C.G.I. (London), MSc. (Wales), PhD (London).

Biographical details

Institute of Oceanographic Sciences, Taunton Laboratory, Somerset, 1974-85.
    -  Senior Scientific Officer, 1979.
    -  Principal Scientific Officer, 1982.
School of Ocean Sciences, University of Wales, Bangor, 1985-.
    - Senior Lecturer, 1990.
    - Reader, 1997.
    - Personal Chair, 2003.
    - Chair in Physical Oceanography, 2005.

Honorary Appointment

Visiting Research Scientist at the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory, Liverpool, 2006-.

Research Field

I.  Sediment transport by waves and currents in the turbulent marine bottom boundary layer:
- numerical and analytical modelling of turbulence (One- and Two-equation turbulence-closure numerical models), and of coherent vortex structures (discrete-vortex, analytical and numerical models), resulting from the interaction between waves and currents in the seabed boundary layer.
- modelling the associated detailed processes of sediment entrainment and transport, above both plane and rippled beds, including morphological changes (stability of the seabed).
- developing improved practical engineering formulations for sand transport in the coastal zone based upon detailed, validated, physical process models.

II. Surface wave propagation in water of finite depth:
- analytical wave modelling in shoaling water.
- modelling Eulerian drift above rippled and rough seabeds.
- modelling resonant surface-wave/seabed interactions and sand bar formation.

Recent and current research grants

EU MAST III (April 1998 - March 2001)
"Sediment Transport Modelling in Marine Coastal Environments (SEDMOC)"
ECU125K over 3 years.
SEDMOC involved 32 scientists/engineers from 14 universities/institutes in 8 EU countries.

EPSRC Contract GR/R23589/01 (April 2001 – March 2004)
“Total sediment transport rate predictions in wave-current sheet flow with graded sand”
£124K over 3 years
** EPSRC Contract GR/R23589/01 is part of a 3-way consortium project ['LUBA’] involving also the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Liverpool, and the Department of Engineering, University of Aberdeen.

EU FP5 Project (April 2002 - March 2005)
"Sand Transport and Morphology of Offshore Sand Mining Pits/Areas (SANDPIT)”
EU172K over 3 years.
SANDPIT involves 17 universities/institutes in 8 EU countries, and a total cost of about EU4M.

EU 5th Framework Project SANDPIT
       To view an article from CORDIS News (08.08.2002) about the SandPit Project click here
                and for an article from  www.innovations-report.com (07.08.2002) click here

MEDIA: Listen to A.G. Davies and P.D. Thorne discussing "Forecasting evolving coastlines",
from The Material World, Radio 4, 1st June 2006, via the link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/thematerialworld_20060601.shtml

Resources for Plymouth Summer School June 2007
Mathematical Methods for Coastal Engineering click here

Resources for RCEM2009Pre-Conference Short Course click here

 


Selected papers (1997- )

For more complete list of references click here

Davies A.G. and Z. Li, 1997.  Modelling sediment transport beneath regular symmetrical and asymmetrical waves above a plane bed. Continental Shelf Research, 17, 5, 555-582.

Davies A.G., Ribberink J.S., Temperville A. and J.A. Zyserman, 1997.  Comparisons between sediment transport models and observations made in wave and current flows above plane beds. Coastal Engineering, 31, 1-4, 163-198.

Davies A.G. and C. Villaret, 1999.  Eulerian drift induced by progressive waves above rippled and very rough beds. Journal of Geophysical Research, 104, C1, 1465-1488.

Li Z. and A.G. Davies, 2001.  Turbulence closure modelling of sediment transport beneath large waves. Continental Shelf Research, 21, 3, 243-262.

Van Rijn L.C., Davies A.G., van de Graaff J. and J.S. Ribberink (Eds.), 2001. SEDMOC : Sediment Transport Modelling in Marine Coastal Environments. Aqua Publications, Amsterdam, 415pp.

Davies A.G., Van Rijn L.C., Damgaard J.S., van de Graaff J. and J.S. Ribberink, 2002. Intercomparison of research and practical sand transport models. Coastal Engineering, 46, 1-23. [Click here for pdf file]

Thorne P.D., Williams J.J. and A.G. Davies, 2002. Suspended sediments under waves measured in a large-scale flume facility. Journal of Geophysical Research (Oceans), 107 (C8), 10.1029/2001JC000988, 16pp.

Davies A.G. and C. Villaret, 2002. Prediction of sand transport rates by waves and currents in the coastal zone.  Continental Shelf Research, 22, 18-19,2725-2737. [Click here for pdf file]

Malarkey J. and A.G. Davies, 2002. Discrete vortex modelling of oscillatory flow over ripples. Applied Ocean Research, 24, 3, 127-145.

Malarkey J., Davies A.G. and Z. Li, 2003. A simple model of unsteady sheet flow sediment transport. Coastal Engineering, 48, 3, 171-188. [Click here for pdf file]

Davies A.G. and C. Villaret, 2003. Sediment transport modelling for coastal morphodynamics. Proceedings of Coastal Sediments’03, held May 18-23, in Clearwater, Florida, East Meets West Productions, 14pp. [Click here for pdf file]

Thorne P.D., Davies A.G. and J.J. Williams, 2003. Measurements of near-bed intra-wave sediment entrainment above vortex ripples. Geophysical Research Letters, 30, 20, 2028,doi:10.1029/2003GL018427. [Click here for pdf file]

Malarkey, J., and A. G. Davies, 2004. An eddy viscosity formulation for oscillatory flow over vortex ripples. Journal of Geophysical Research, 109, C12016, doi:10.1029/2003JC002086.

Davies A.G. and Thorne P.D., 2005. Modelling and measurement of sediment transport by waves in the vortex ripple regime.  Journal of Geophysical Research, 110, C05017, doi:10.1029/2004JC002468.   [Click here for pdf file]

Van Rijn L.C., Soulsby R.L.,  Hoekstra P. and Davies A.G. (Eds.), 2005. SANDPIT, Sand Transport and Morphology of Offshore Mining Pits. Aqua Publications, The Netherlands, 716pp.

Thorne P.D. and A.G. Davies, 2006. Sounding out sediment transport – observations and modelling of ripple-generated vortices. Ocean Challenge, 14,3,15-21. [Click here for pdf file]

Davies A.G. and J.M. Brown, 2007. Field measurement and modelling of scour pit dynamics in a sandy estuary. Coastal Sediments’07: proceedings of the 6th International Symposium on Coastal Engineering and Science of Coastal Sediment Processes, May 2007, New Orleans, American Society of Civil Engineers, 1609-1622. [Click here for pdf file]

Davies A.G. and Thorne P.D., 2008. Advances in the Study of Moving Sediments and Evolving Seabeds. Surveys in Geophysics, DOI 10.1007/s10712-008-9039-x, 36pp. [Click here for pdf file]
Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10712-008-9039-x

Thorne, P. D., A. G. Davies, and P. S. Bell (2009), Observations and analysis of sediment diffusivity profiles over sandy rippled beds under waves, J. Geophys. Res., 114, C02023, doi:10.1029/2008JC004944. [Click here for pdf file]

Brown J.M. and A.G. Davies, 2009. Methods for medium-term prediction of the net sediment transport by waves and currents in complex coastal regions.  Continental Shelf Research, 29, 11-12, 1502-1514. [Click here for pdf file]

 

Malarkey, J., S. Pan, M. Li, T. O'Donoghue, A.G. Davies and B.A. O'Connor, 2009. Modelling and observation of oscillatory sheet-flow sediment transport. Ocean Engineering, 36(11), 873-890. [Click here for pdf file]

Van der A D., O’Donoghue T., Davies A.G. and J.S. Ribberink, 2008. Effects of acceleration skewness on rough bed oscillatory boundary layer flow. In Proceedings of the 31st International Conference on Coastal Engineering, Hamburg, September 2008, pp 1583-1595. http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/9789814277426_0131  [Click here for pdf file]

Neill S.P., Litt, E.J., Couch S.J. and Davies A.G., 2009. The impact of tidal stream turbines on large-scale sediment dynamics. Renewable Energy, 34, 2803-2812. [Click here for pdf file]

Robins P.E. and Davies, A.G., 2009.  Morphodynamic processes in shallow estuaries: influence of tidal flats and channels on sand transport. In Proceedings of the 6th IAHR Symposium on River, Coastal and Estuarine Morphodynamics (RCEM 2009), Santa Fe, Argentina, 21-25 September 2009, CRC Press/Balkema, Volume 1, 161-167. [Click here for pdf file]

Villaret C., Hervouet J.M., Huybrechts N., Van L.A. and Davies A.G., 2009. Effect of bed friction on morphodynamic modelling: Application to the central part of the Gironde estuary. In Proceedings of the 6th IAHR Symposium on River, Coastal and Estuarine Morphodynamics (RCEM 2009), Santa Fe, Argentina, 21-25 September 2009, CRC Press/Balkema, Volume 2, 899-905. [Click here for pdf file]

 

Brown J.M. and Davies A.G., 2010. Flood/ebb tidal asymmetry in a shallow sandy estuary and the impact on net sand transport. Geomorphology, 114, 431-439. [Click here for pdf file]