Professor Simon Tait
Department of Civil and Structural Engineering
Professor of Water Engineering

+44 114 222 5771
Full contact details
Department of Civil and Structural Engineering
Sir Frederick Mappin Building
Mappin Street
Sheffield
S1 3JD
- Profile
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My research results in improved measurement and management methodologies to allow urban water infrastructure systems to cope better with pressures caused by climate change, changing patterns of use and physical deterioration.
PROFESSOR SIMON TAIT
Some of Simon’s research focuses on how sediments and pollutants get into water networks and environments; specifically, the processes associated with erosion, transportation and deposition of sediment in river and urban drainage systems. This has evolved to the study of near-bed turbulence and how this interacts with water surfaces waves, offering the potential for the measurement of river and in-pipe turbulence from observations of the water surface.
When sewers fail due to the system filling up or blockages, they can overflow into rivers and urban environments which is biologically damaging and can be detrimental to the aquatic ecology. By working to ensure better management of sewer and drainage networks, Simon aims to prevents this and minimise the resources spent on maintaining sewers and clean-up. He uses lab experiments and surrogate or real sediments as well as numerical modelling to discover how sediments and pollutants move within networks and rivers. By understanding how sediments and networks perform, better decisions can be made to ensure the safety of the urban drainage systems that serve large sections of the population.
Simon is involved in the development of novel inspection techniques to allow the large sewer and drainage networks to be better managed as they face increased pressures from climate change and deterioration. He helped form a spin-out instrumentation company with Professor Kirill Horoshenkov, which uses acoustic-based instruments to search for defects in pipes.
Research Themes
- Publications
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Journal articles
- Stochastic determination of entrainment risk in uniformly sized sediment beds at low transport stages: 2. Experiments. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 117(4).
- Stochastic determination of entrainment risk in uniformly sized sediment beds at low transport stages: 1 Theory. Journal of Geophysical Research, 117.
- Wall-wake flows downstream of a sphere placed on a plane rough wall. Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, 137, 1173-1189.
- Examining the physical components of boundary shear stress for water-worked gravel deposits. EARTH SURF PROC LAND, 35(10), 1240-1246.
- Towards quantification of uncertainty in predicting water quality failures in integrated catchment model studies. Water Research, 44(13), 3893-3904.
- Water-worked gravel beds in laboratory flumes - a natural analogue?. EARTH SURF PROC LAND, 34(3), 384-397.
- Probabilistic description of grain resistance from simultaneous flow field and grain motion measurements. Water Resource Research, 44.
- Quantifying the role of bed surface topography in controlling sediment stability in water-worked gravel deposits. Water Resources Research, 44(4).
- Determining hydraulic resistance in gravel-bed rivers from the dynamics of their water surfaces. EARTH SURF PROC LAND, 31(14), 1839-1848.
- Sediment supply and local scouring at bed sills in high-gradient streams. WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH, 42(6).
- The erosion behaviour of biologically active sewer sediment deposits: Observations from a laboratory study. WATER RESEARCH, 39(20), 5221-5231.
- Analysis of small-scale gravel bed topography during armoring. WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH, 39(12).
- Stochastic determination of entrainment risk in uniformly sized sediment beds at low transport stages: 2. Experiments. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 117(4).
- Research group
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SuDS (Sustainable Drainage Systems) and Urban Drainage
Environmental Fluid Mechanics
- Grants
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The EPSRC-funded Grand Challenge Centre for Water, comprising 6 UK universities and 100+ industrial partners working in collaboration to develop the sustainable water solutions of the future and to accelerate innovation uptake across the water sector.
- Potential PhD offerings
Unfortunately I am not seeking any PhD Students at this time, however please contact me if you are interested in doing a project in my research area.