About
Professor Christina Vanderwel is the Head of the Aerodynamics and Flight Mechanics Research Group and UKRI Future Leaders Fellow in the Aerodynamics and Astronautics Department at the University of Southampton.
She specialises in experimental fluid mechanics, turbulence, and dispersion. In particular, her research involves conducting laboratory experiments using laser-based diagnostics to study the mechanisms of transport of turbulent flows. Applications include building aerodynamics, urban air pollution, ocean mixing, vehicle aerodynamics and industrial flows.
You can update this in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading and then ‘Curriculum and research description’, select ‘Add profile information’. In the dropdown menu, select - ‘About’.
Write about yourself in the third person. Aim for 100 to 150 words covering the main points about who you are and what you currently do. Clear, simple language is best. You can include specialist or technical terms.
You’ll be able to add details about your research, publications, career and academic history to other sections of your staff profile.
Research
Research interests
- Experimental Fluid Mechanics
- Turbulence Measurements and Modelling
- Building Aerodynamics and Urban Air Pollution
Current research
My research focusses on studying the mechanisms of mass and momentum transport in turbulent flows. My aim is to understand how coherent structures are fundamental building blocks of turbulence and how they contribute to the enhanced mixing and dispersion associated with turbulent flows.
Experimental Fluid Mechanics
The University of Southampton has a wide selection of experimental fluid mechanics facilities which includes several wind tunnels, water tunnels, and a large towing tank, located at Bolderwood campus. These facilities can generate a variety of flows, including flows over custom landscape models, turbulent boundary layers, shear flows and flows around different structures. Laser-based diagnostics such as particle image velocimetry (PIV) provide measurements of the flow velocity field. In addition, we are working on developing and improving the technique of planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF), which is a non-obtrusive method to measure the concentration of fluorescent dyes released in the flow. Using PLIF, we can measure the dispersion of a fluorescent dye acting as a proxy for pollution in a range of flows including channel flows, flows over complex terrain, industrial flows, and flows simulating indoor ventilation systems.
The structure of turbulent shear flows and boundary layers
Turbulent flows consist of a range of scales of vortices and eddies where the largest most-dominant repeating vortex patterns are known as coherent structures. Coherent structures act as mechanisms for turbulent transport and contain a substantial proportion of the turbulence energy. This research is interested in identifying the large-scale structures of different turbulent flows and how they vary due to the flow conditions. Flows of interest range from idealised turbulent shear flows to turbulent boundary layers developing over complex surfaces. Application of this research includes pollution transport modelling, drag prediction, and weather forecasting.
Building aerodynamics and urban air pollution
In a world with increased urbanisation and industrialisation, pollution is a global problem with a serious impact on health and climate that crosses political boundaries. However, in order to improve methods of tracing and predicting the movement of pollution in the atmosphere and waterways, we need to better understand the fundamental mechanisms of transport in turbulent flows. Current research combines computer simulations using Gaussian plume models and CFD as well as novel laboratory experiments to simulate wind patterns and air pollution in urban areas. Projects have included experimentally modelling vehicle exhausts, indoor air flow patterns, flow around buildings and city models, and simulations of air quality in Southampton. These projects all aim to improve our capability to model and predict urban air quality and make better decisions for sustainable cities.
You can update the information for this section in Pure (opens in a new tab).
Research groups
Any research groups you belong to will automatically appear on your profile. Speak to your line manager if these are incorrect. Please do not raise a ticket in Ask HR.
Research interests
Add up to 5 research interests. The first 3 will appear in your staff profile next to your name. The full list will appear on your research page. Keep these brief and focus on the keywords people may use when searching for your work. Use a different line for each one.
In Pure (opens in a new tab), select ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading 'Curriculum and research description', select 'Add profile information'. In the dropdown menu, select 'Research interests: use separate lines'.
Current research
Update this in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘Edit profile’ and then ‘Curriculum and research description - Current research’.
Describe your current research in 100 to 200 words. Write in the third person. Include broad key terms to help people discover your work, for example, “sustainability” or “fashion textiles”.
Research projects
Research Council funded projects will automatically appear here. The active project name is taken from the finance system.
Publications
Public outputs that list you as an author will appear here, once they’re validated by the ePrints Team. If you’re missing any outputs that you’ve added to Pure, they may be waiting for validation.
Supervision
Current PhD Students
Contact your Faculty Operating Service team to update PhD students you supervise and any you’ve previously supervised. Making this information available will help potential PhD applicants to find you.
Teaching
Current:
- SESA6061 Turbulence
Past:
- SESA6070 Experimental Methods for Aerodynamics
- FEEG3011 Introduction to Turbulence and Mixing
- SESA2023 Propulsion
- FEEG1003 Thermofluids
You can update your teaching description in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading and then ‘Curriculum and research description’ , select ‘Add profile information’. In the dropdown menu, select – ‘Teaching Interests’. Describe your teaching interests and your current responsibilities. Aim for 200 words maximum.
Courses and modules
Contact the Curriculum and Quality Assurance (CQA) team for your faculty to update this section.
External roles and responsibilities
These are the public-facing activities you’d like people to know about.
This section will only display on your public profile if you’ve added content.
You can update your external roles and responsibilities in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘+ Add content’ and then ‘Activity’, your ‘Personal’ tab and then ‘Activities’. Choose which activities you want to show on your public profile.
You can hide activities from your public profile. Set the visibility as 'Backend' to only show this information within Pure, or 'Confidential' to make it visible only to you.
Biography
2024: Professor of Experimental Fluid Mechanics, University of Southampton
2020: Associate Professor in Experimental Fluid Mechanics, University of Southampton
* 2020-2027: Winner of a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, "Simulating Urban Air Pollution in the Lab"
2015: Lecturer in Experimental Fluid Mechanics, University of Southampton
* 2015-2017: Winner of a Marie Curie Research Fellowship, “Effects of multi-scale rough patches on hydrodynamics and scalar dispersion in turbulent boundary layers”
2014: PhD in Mechanical Engineering, “Turbulent Diffusion in Uniformly Sheared Flow”, University of Ottawa, Canada. *Winner of the Pierre Laberge Award for outstanding achievement in Science and Engineering.
2009: MASc in Mechanical Engineering, “Coherent Structures in Uniformly Sheared Turbulent Flow“, University of Ottawa, Canada.
2007: BSc (Hons.) in Mechanical Engineering, Queen’s University, Canada.
You can update your biography section in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select your ‘Personal’ tab then ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading, and ‘Curriculum and research description’, select ‘Add profile information’. In the dropdown menu, select - ‘Biography’. Aim for no more than 400 words.
This section will only appear if you enter the information into Pure (opens in a new tab).
Prizes
You can update this section in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘+Add content’ and then ‘Prize’. using the ‘Prizes’ section.
You can choose to hide prizes from your public profile. Set the visibility as ‘Backend’ to only show this information within Pure, or ‘Confidential’ to make it visible only to you.