Modeling of Debris Flows and Granular Avalanches

Institution: LIDAM Laboratory of Environmental and Maritime Hydraulics, University of Salerno

Website: www.unisa.it

Country: Italy

Duration: 2 to 6 months

Contact information at the placement: Luca Sarno, lsarno@unisa.it

Contact information at the higher education institution: bbarone@unisa.it

Description:

The intern may participate in the following activities under the supervision of the tutor:

• Numerical modelling with case studies of debris flows and debris avalanches in Italy and in the Campania region;
• Investigating the dynamics of granular media through laboratory experiments with special focus on the measurement of the velocity and solid volume fraction quantities in order to calibrate and validate mathematical models;
• Exploring mitigation and adaptation strategies with reference to the risk of debris flows and granular avalanches.

Within the scope of the above activities, the intern will be required to carry out literature research, develop, test and validate numerical codes of computational fluid dynamics. Based on his/her previous skills, various mathematical approaches and numerical techniques (e.g., depth-averaged models, finite-difference method, finite-volume method, theory-trained neural networks etc…) may be developed and tested under the supervision of the tutor.

Requirements:

• A good knowledge of hydraulics and of the basics of numerical modelling is required;
• Skills in Matlab or Python programming are preferred.

Language of communication: English

(Internship/Position ID: NSMT_IT0016)