Prof. Dr. Manousos Valyrakis

My research focuses on the development of novel advances in criteria and experimental methods, instrumentation and sensors for measuring flow and sediment transport, and using these for advancing sediment transport models. The ability to predict when sediments become entrained in turbulent flows is therefore vital for water professionals working in a wide variety of practical engineering problems. My research has clearly demonstrated the limitations of existing sediment-transport predictive methods that fail to account for the effects of turbulence. My theoretical work has included a novel approach to incorporate the dynamic aspects of hydrodynamic forcing leading to sediment transport. The development of modern nonintrusive and high-accuracy techniques have helped offer clear experimental evidence that the proposed theoretical criteria are more robust and superior to earlier ones. My research has focused on understanding the fundamental mechanisms of turbulence-induced particle entrainment, as well as developing new tools to improve the characterization of these interlinked transport processes. I am particularly interested in further building on these recent significant advances by developing new sensor designs, for improving the measurement accuracy of flow and sediment transport, as well as exploring the potential of these novel technologies and sensing techniques to other applications of interest, such as ecology and geo-environment.