Current trends in engineering mechanics

Alistair G. L. BorthwickUniversity of Oxford, UK

Environmental fluid mechanics relates to the motion of fluids in the atmosphere and on Earth, including weather systems, oceanic circulation, coastal processes, overland flows, river, lake and estuary dynamics, groundwater flow, and geophysical fluid dynamics. Environmental flows cover multiple scales ranging from molecular diffusion, to droplet formation, to the spectrum of vortical structures in open channel and air flows, to the size of the planet (e.g. weather systems, tides and oceanic circulation). This commentary considers trends in modelling oceanic, coastal, and free-surface shallow flows, with a short bow in the direction of...