Who am I?

I'm Ben R. Hodges, an associate professor of civil engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. For more about me click here.

What’s this site got?

Here you’ll find out about my research, classes and maybe learn a bit about environmental fluid mechanics.

Cool picture of recent work

Some field data taken in Corpus Christi Bay where a gravity current (high-salinity water) exits from Oso Bay (to the left of the figures). The data was taken with a Eureka Manta probe. More info is on the project page and the field page. This work was done with the collaboration and financial support of the Texas Water Development Board and the National Science Foundation. Interpreting and modeling such data are key aspects of my research.  Below we see that a thin layer of high-salinity water isolates the bottom sediments and allows hypoxia to develop.  Note that oceanic salinity is typically around 32-36 psu, and we see the development of 50+ psu!   We’ve recently (Aug 2008) submitted this work to the Journal of Hydraulic Engineering.

 

What is Environmental Fluid Mechanics?

Like the proverbial elephant and the blind men - what you grab may be how you see it!

Broadly speaking, Environmental Fluid Mechanics is the study of fluid flows in surface water, ground water, the atmosphere, and engineered systems (e.g. wastewater treatment plants). 

Environmental Fluid Mechanics is the nexus of fluid mechanics from several disciplines: “classical” fluid mechanics, civil engineering hydraulics, meteorology, oceanography, geophysical fluid dynamics, physical limnology and environmental engineering.

Some people prefer “Environmental Fluid Dynamics” to “... Mechanics,” but it seems das macht nichts.


 

The bottom line (IMHO) is...

The principle difference between general fluid mechanics and environmental fluid mechanics is the importance of density stratification in the latter.

 
UT         School of Engineering            Dept. of Civil, Arch.& Env. Eng.        Env. & Water Resources Eng.    Env. Science Institute
Copyright 2007 Ben R. Hodges      Last updated Aug 27, 2008  http://www.utexas.eduhttp://www.engr.utexas.eduhttp://www.caee.utexas.eduhttp://www.caee.utexas.edu/ewrehttp://www.esi.utexas.edushapeimage_4_link_0shapeimage_4_link_1shapeimage_4_link_2shapeimage_4_link_3shapeimage_4_link_4
This site is slowly being reconstructed in a more maintainable form.  The old web site is still accessible at  www.ce.utexas.edu/prof/hodges/site2006http://www.ce.utexas.edu/prof/hodges/site2006