Statement of purpose for a PhD program

As a critical part of water environment, the aquatic vegetation provides tens of trillion of dollars worth of ecosystem services annually according to some researches. Nowadays, the aquatic plant’s potential for wastewater purification is increasingly highlighted, to better utilize vegetation to intake and control pollutants, deepening the understanding of detailed mixing process is still crucial. The department of civil and structural engineering of University of Koldovstoretz has strong research focus on mixing and transport of contaminants, which is also my research interest. Therefore, I am writing to apply for a Ph.D. position in engineering program of the university of Koldovstoretz . I believe I can expand my knowledge and contribute to engineering in your prestigious university.

I hold a B.Eng degree in Harbor Waterway and Coastal Engineering and a M.Eng in Hydraulic Engineering from Uagadou university, a predominant Chinese national research university. Through the broad range of scientific disciplines relating to civil engineering, I am provided sound and firm fundamental knowledge for further research.

During my master studies, my research centers around the mean and turbulent structures of vegetated flow under the supervision of Prof.Emmanuel. The method I used is based on an in-house code. After reviewing a number of literature about vegetated flow and bed-load transport, I designed and conducted numerical simulation to investigate the detailed influences of aquatic plants. The work I have done includes two parts, In the first part, I investigated the effects of plants’ bending shape on the flow structure, the results showed that the penetration depth of K-H vortices significantly increase after bending, consequently, the turbulent intensity within the canopy increased; In the second part, the configuration of vegetation patches was considered, I analyzed the velocity field detailly.

Through those research experience, I am familiar with the different CFD methods (e.g. RANS, LES, DNS) and their applications. Besides, I have conducted simulations in Flow-3D, Ansys Fluent, and could use post-processing software (e.g. Tecplot) proficiently. Moreover, all of the numerical simulations of my master thesis were running in China’s state-of-the-art Pawsey, thus, I can utilize the MPI parallelization to solve the large-scale CFD problems.

In conclusion, applying for your Ph.D. program is an ideal opportunity for me to further my research and become a professor one day. I believe my related experience qualifies me for consideration. Before submitting my application, I have studied the research areas of you professors, and I am extremely interested in the area of mixing process in vegetated flow, thus, I have contacted Prof. Zima King.