 Vortices in shear
flow
|
My research aims to quantify the mixing in
environmental
flows,
particularly those in
large lakes and the coastal ocean where
stratification and the Earth's rotation play a dominant role in the
dynamics. I study such mixing and
dispersion in both the field and the
laboratory.
Currently my main areas of research are in the study of turbidity
currents, density currents, double
diffusive convection, dispersion in
environmental flows and modeling of two dimensional turbulence. |
 Dispersion of
ballast water
|
In my laboratory I supervise graduate
students with
interests
in physical limnology, coastal oceanography or fundamental fluid
dynamics. Succesfuul graduate students
would need to be self motivated,
have an undergraduate background
in mathematics, physics, geology
or engineering, and have good communication skills. Potential
students would be enrolled in either
the Department of Geology,
the Department of Geography,
the
Department
of Physics or
the new PhD program in Environmental
Science at the University of Toronto. The
University of
Toronto has a respectable funding package for students (made up from a
central fund, grant support, and teaching assistantships). The start
date is typically August of each year. However, as the University of
Toronto now has only one intake time per year, it is essential that
interested students begin the application procedure prior to the end of
the previous year (November 2010).
Interested Masters and PhD students are encouraged to
contact me
directly at wells@utsc.utoronto.ca
about potential research projects
for 2011. Eligable students should apply for Ontario
Graduate Scholarship (OGS) or NSERC
graduate fellowships.
Research opportunities also exist for undergraduate
students
through the readings course EESC24H3
Advanced Readings in Environmental Science or the
course EESD10Y3 Research
Project in Environmental Science. Undergraduate summer research
projects that lead into EESD10 are also possible, and students are
encouraged to apply for
the NSERC
Undergraduate Student Research Awards or the University
of Toronto Excellence Awards (UTEA) In the Natural Sciences and
Engineering.
Brief CV
1993 - 1996 Bachelor of Science - First Class
Honours
Australian National University
1997 - 2001 PhD in Geophysical
Fluid Dynamics, Research
School of Earth Sciences,
Australian
National University
2001 - 2002 Post Doctoral Fellow, Fluid
Dynamics Laboratory,
Department of Applied Physics,
Eindhoven
Technical University, The Netherlands
2003 - 2005 Research Associate, Department of Geology, Yale
University
2006 - 2011, Assistant Professor, University of Toronto.
2011 - present, Associate Professor, University of Toronto.
Publications
Articles
in preparation or under review
B. Hlevca and M.G. Wells (2011) Water exchange driven by seiches
in shallow coastal embayments of the Great Lakes. Water Resources Research. (under
revision)
M.G. Wells, M.A. Coman, J. Vear and H. Liu (2011)
Time-dependent profiles of a passive tracer in a filling-box. Journal of Fluid Mechanics (under
revision)
Peer Reviewed Journal Articles
M.A. Coman and
M.G. Wells (2011) Temperature variability in the near shore benthic
boundary layer of Lake Opeongo is due to wind driven upwelling events. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic
Sciences. (accepted)
Cossu,
R. and M.G.Wells (2011) A
comparison of the shear stress distribution in the bottom boundary
layer of experimental density and turbidity currents. European Journal of Mechanics - B/Fluids.
(in press) doi:10.1016/j.euromechflu.2011.09.006
M.G. Wells, S. Bailey and B. Ruddick (2011) The
dilution and
dispersion of ballast water discharged into Goderich Harbor. Marine Pollution Bulletin 62
1288-1296
doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2011.03.005
M.G.
Wells, C. Cenedese and C.P. Caulfield
(2010) The
relationship
between
flux coefficient and entrainment ratio in density currents.
J.
Phys. Oceanog. 40(12) 2713–2727 doi:
10.1175/2010JPO4225.1
Cossu,
R., M.G.Wells and A.K. Wahlin (2010) Influence
of the Coriolis
force on the velocity structure of gravity currents in straight
submarine channel systems. Journal
of Geophysical Research- Oceans 115, C11016
doi:10.1029/2010JC006208
Cossu,
R., and
M.G. Wells (2010) Coriolis
forces influence the
secondary circulation of gravity currents flowing in large-scale
sinuous submarine channel systems. Geophysical
Research Letters., 37, L17603, doi:10.1029/2010GL044296.
L.A.
Wyngaarden, K.M. Vogeli, B. Ciruna, T.P. Yamaguchi, D.Y.
Stainier,
G.R. Martin, M.G. Wells, A-K Hadjantonakis and S. Hopyan. (2010)
Oriented
cell
motility and division underlie early limb bud morphogenesis. Development 137(15)
2551-2558, doi:10.1242/dev.046987
M.G. Wells and S. Parker.
(2010) The
thermal variability of the
waters of
Fathom Five National Marine Park, Lake Huron.
J. Great Lakes Res. 36, 570-576 doi:10.1016/j.jglr.2010.04.009
M.G.
Wells. (2009) How Coriolis
forces
can limit the spatial extent of
sediment deposition of a large-scale turbidity current. Sedimentary
Geology,
218,
1-5 doi:10.1016/j.sedgeo.2009.04.011
M.G. Wells and P.
Nadarajah. (2009) The
intrusion depth of
density currents flowing into stratified water bodies. J.
Phys. Oceanog. 39, 1935–1947.
M.G. Wells and L, Sealock, (2009) Summer
Water Circulation in
Frenchman's
Bay, a Shallow Coastal Embayment Connected to Lake Ontario,
J.Great Lakes Res., 35(4) 548-559
doi:10.1016/j.jglr.2009.08.009
M.G. Wells and J. S. Wettlaufer
(2008). The
circulation in Lake Vostok: A
laboratory analogue study. Geophysical
Research Letters.
35,
L0350, doi:10.1029/2007GL032162
M.G. Wells and J. S. Wettlaufer
(2007) The
long-term
circulation
driven by density currents in a two-layer stratified basin.
J. Fluid Mech.
572,
37 - 58
M.G.
Wells, H.J.H. Clercx, and G.J.F. van
Heijst
(2007)
Vortices in
oscillating
spin-up.
J.
Fluid Mech.
573, 339 -
369
M.G. Wells and J. S. Wettlaufer
(2005)
Two
dimensional density currents in a confined basin Geophys.
Astro. Fluid Dyn. 99 , 199-218
H.J.H Clercx ,
G.J.F. van
Heijst, D. Molenaar and M.G.
Wells (2005)
No slip
walls as a vorticity source in 2D bounded turbulence. Dyn.
Atmos. Oceans
40, 3-21
S. Bryan,
A. Cook, J. Evans, P. Colls, M.G. Wells,
M. Lawrence, J. Jell, A. Greig and R. Leslie
(2004) Pumice rafting and
faunal
dispersion during 2001-2002 in the Sothwest Pacific: record of a
dacitic
submarine explosive eruption from Tonga. Earth Planet.
Sci.
Letts.
227 135-154
M.G.Wells and
G.J.F. van Heijst (2003) A
model of
tidal flushing of an estuary by dipole formation Dyn.
Atmos. Oceans. 37 223-244
M.G.Wells and
R.W Griffiths (2003) The
interaction
of
salt finger convection with intermittent turbulence. J.
Geophys.
Res. 108 (C3) 10.1029/2002JC001427
M.G.Wells and R.W Griffiths
(2002) Localized
stirring in a
field of salt fingers Dyn. Atmos. Oceans. 35 (4):
327-350
M.G.Wells and B.
Sherman (2001) Stratification
produced by surface cooling in lakes with significant shallow
regions Limn. and Ocean. 46,
1747-1759
M.G Wells., R. W.
Griffiths, and J. S. Turner (2001)
Generation of
density fine structure by salt fingers in a spatially periodic shear.
J.
Geophys. Res. 106, 7027 - 7037.
M.G. Wells, R.W. Griffiths and J.S. Turner
(1999) Competition
between distributed and localised buoyancy fluxes in a confined volume.
J. Fluid
Mech. 391, 319 - 336.
A.M. Leitch,
G.F. Davies and M.G. Wells (1998) A
plume head
melting
under a rifting margin. Earth Planet. Sci.
Lett. 161,
161-177.
Book
Chapters
M.G.Wells,
H.J.H Clercx and G.J.F. van Heijst
(2008)
Mixing
and dispersion in laboratory experiments of forced 2D turbulence.
in “Transport in Geophysical Flows".
Lecture Notes in Physics, Vol.
744 Weiss, J.B.
and Provenzale, A. (Eds.)
pp
115-132
M.G. Wells (2007) Influence of
Coriolis forces on turbidity
currents and their
sediment patterns. Particle-laden
flow: from geophysical to
Kolmogorov scales. ERCOFTAC Series, 11, B.J. Geurts,
H.
Clercx, and W. Uijttewaal (Eds.) pp. 331 –344.
M.G.
Wells and G.J.F. van
Heijst (2004) Dipole
formation by tidal flow in a channel in Shallows Flows.
Jirka, G.H. and Uijttewaal, W. (Eds.), Balkema, Rotterdam. pp.
63-70
Thesis
M.G. Wells (2001)
Convection,
turbulent mixing and salt fingers. Ph.D. Thesis, Australian
National University.
