Water Engineering discipline

Projects | Facilities | People

Research groups

Our research builds upon a culture of nurturing and addressing industry needs in collaboration with a range of stakeholders to provide innovative solutions to challenging problems. Our activities span a range of fundamental, experimental and applied research, including many aspects of understanding and modelling hydraulics and hydrological processes, hydrogeology, drainage and flood risk management, potable water distribution infrastructure, environmental fluid mechanics, surface mixing processes and sediment transport.

Environmental Fluid Mechanics

Our research covers coastal and river hydrodynamics- impacts of vegetation on flow and mixing processes/pollutant transport in natural and engineered contexts; and numerical modelling.

Core members:
Ian Guymer, Georges Kesserwani, Alma Schellart, James Shucksmith,  Virginia Stovin & Simon Tait

Groundwater Protection and Restoration

Our research involves laboratory, field and modelling applications on: groundwater hydrology; contaminant hydrogeology; fate transport and remediation of subsurface pollutants; site characterization and risk assessment.

Group members:
Domenico Bau & Steve Thornton

GPRG website

SuDS (Sustainable drainage systems) and Urban Drainage

Our work areas include hydrological performance model development for vegetated SuDS (including green roofs); rainfall and uncertainty analysis; urban flooding as well as use of field and laboratory observations and CFD models to understand hydrodynamics and pollutant transport processes in drainage systems.

Group members:
Joby Boxall, Ian Guymer, Georges Kesserwani, Andy Nichols, Alma Schellart, James Shucksmith, Virginia Stovin & Simon Tait

Water Distribution Systems and Infrastructure 

Our research covers application of advanced modelling tools; laboratory and field work to hydraulic and water quality interactions in piped networks; including leakage; discoloration and pressure transients.

Group members:
Joby Boxall, Richard Collins, Isabel Douterelo, Ian Guymer, Stewart Husband & Vanessa Speight

Catchments and River Engineering

Our research involves flooding; hydrodynamic modelling; water quality processes and modelling; pollutant dynamics and transport; urban/rural interactions; eco hydraulics.

Group members:
Ian Guymer, Georges Kesserwani, Charles Rouge & James Shucksmith

The Water Engineering Research Group is part of the University-wide Sheffield Water Centre, and many of our staff were also part of the Pennine Water Group.

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Research projects

Our research builds upon a culture of nurturing and addressing industry needs in collaboration with a range of stakeholders to provide innovative solutions to challenging problems.

Research themes

Our work is focused across five major research themes, which align our interdisciplinary academic strengths to address some of the key scientific, social and environmental challenges of the new millennium.

• Digital
• Energy
• Hazards
• Infrastructure
• Materials

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Facilities and resources

Our water engineering activities make use of a variety of innovative facilities and resources.

Pipe systems

• Temperature controlled potable water system for biofilm growth/examination 3 x 200 m of 90 mm pipe

• Copper pipe loop

• Contaminant Ingress test rig 120 m x 90 mm pipe

• 4 off 100 m pipe coils and 2 off double pump pressure systems for transients in pipe testing

For more information contact Dr Richard Collins

Open channel flumes

• 1.2 m wide, 0.6 m deep, 15 m long fibre glass panelled flume

• Annular flume in temperature controlled laboratory

• 300 mm x 450 mm x 12 m glass flume

• 500 mm x 500 mm x 16 m glass panelled flume with pump and flow control

For more information contact Professor Ian Guymer

Model aquifer facility

• 40 m long x 6 m wide x 5 m deep model sandy aquifer with flow control systems for experimental research
• See ICAIR

For more information contact Professor Steve Thornton

Urban drainage

• Surface/Sewer flows interaction facility, 8 m x 4 m surface linked to a 75 mm drainage pipe work by a 240 mm ‘manhole’.
• Hydrological Performance Test Beds
• 300 mm dia x 20 m clear acrylic pipe test rig with pump and flow control
• Real Time Control Test facility, 35 m of 200 mm pipe with 4, 1 m diameter manholes. Featuring automated gate and depth sensors.
• ICAIR/PLEXUS

For more information contact Dr James Shucksmith

Green Infrastructure

• 12 off green roof test rigs with flow monitoring and moisture data collection system
• 2 x 300 mm diameter infiltration columns for unsaturated hydraulic conductivity measurements. The systems include: controlled inflow/rainfall; moisture content sensors and tensiometers within the sample; and drainage/runoff measurement below the columns.

For more information contact Professor Virginia Stovin

Settling Column

• 300 mm dia x 6 m tall settling column with Electrical Resistance Tomography (ERT) sensor

For more information contact Dr Andy Nichols 

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People

Our dedicated staff that make this research possible.

Academics

Name	Research Discipline	Title
Bau, Dr Domenico	Groundwater Protection and Restoration	Senior Lecturer
Boxall, Prof. Joby	Water Distribution Systems and Infrastructure	Professor of Water Infrastructure Engineering EPSRC Challenging Engineer
Collins, Dr Richard	Water Distribution Systems and Infrastructure	Senior Lecturer in Water Engineering
Douterelo Soler, Dr Isabel	Water Distribution Systems and Infrastructure	Lecturer in Water Engineering
Guymer, Prof. Ian	Environmental Fluid Mechanics SuDS (Sustainable Drainage Systems) and Urban Drainage	Professor of Civil Engineering
Kesserwani, Dr Georges	Environmental Fluid Mechanics SuDS (Sustainable Drainage Systems) and Urban Drainage	Senior Lecturer in Catchment Science
Nichols, Dr Andy	SuDS (Sustainable Drainage Systems) and Urban Drainage	Senior Lecturer in Water Engineering
Rougé, Dr Charles	Water Distribution Systems and Infrastructure	Lecturer
Schellart, Dr Alma	Environmental Fluid Mechanics SuDS (Sustainable Drainage Systems) and Urban Drainage	Senior Lecturer in Water Engineering
Shucksmith, Dr James	Environmental Fluid Mechanics SuDS (Sustainable Drainage Systems) and Urban Drainage	Senior Lecturer in Water Engineering
Stovin, Prof. Virginia	Environmental Fluid Mechanics SuDS (Sustainable Drainage Systems) and Urban Drainage	Professor of Green Infrastructure for Stormwater Management
Tait, Prof. Simon	Environmental Fluid Mechanics SuDS (Sustainable Drainage Systems) and Urban Drainage	Professor of Water Engineering
Thornton, Prof. Steve	Groundwater Protection and Restoration	Professor in Environmental Engineering Science