The nonprofit Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science Inc. has awarded a $5,000 research fellowship to Nikolaos Apsilidis, a doctoral student in the Virginia Tech Charles E. Via Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, part of the College of Engineering.
Apsilidis will travel to the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Waterways Experiment Station in Vicksburg, Mississippi, to collect data and perform large-scale experiments to better understand the physical processes of scouring around bridge piers.
Six 2010 Pathfinder Fellowships were awarded to students in the United States. The award helps graduate students to move beyond a “one site, one view” approach and spearhead research projects throughout the nation, according to the consortium. The monetary award provides travel support to make an extended visit to conduct field research at an additional site or to collaborate with a research group not based at the student’s university.
“The research project will model the scour activity around a large pier at nearly-prototype conditions at the laboratories of the Waterways Experiment Station,” said Apsilidis, a native of Serres, Greece. “Their premises are among the few around the nation -- and perhaps worldwide -- that make it possible to work with bridge foundation models of similar dimensions to those used in real-life applications.
There also is the advantage compared to working with real bridges of the experimenter having a better control on the input parameters to the system, such as discharge and flow depth. I hope that these series of tests will reveal important aspects of the scouring phenomenon, which are masked when one studies the phenomenon in smaller scales.”
Apsilidis became interested in hydrology and water resources because “water is the most precious commodity given to humankind,” he said. “It is worthwhile to try to learn more about the laws that govern the distribution and movement of water and use this knowledge to make sure a sustainable use of its resources is employed.”
Related, Apsilidis also was the recent recipient of the 2011 Nortek Student Equipment Grant, which will allow him to use state-of-the-art instrument on loan from Nortek to measure flow velocities for a period of three months. He will use the instruments during his experiments at the Waterways Experiment Station.
He previously earned an undergraduate degree in civil engineering and a master’s degree in environmental protection and sustainable development at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.
The consortium represents more than 130 U.S. universities and international water science-related organizations. It focuses on developing infrastructure and services for the advancement of hydrologic science in the United States, and developing, prioritizing and disseminating a broad-based research and education agenda for the hydrologic sciences that is derived from a continuous community-based process engaging both research and applications professionals.
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