Research Projects
	Cross-shore sediment transport due to nearshore waves and currents PhD work with Ole Madsen My PhD thesis focuses on predicting cross-shore sediment transport, that is, the transport along the beach profile. The beach profile undergoes an annual cycle. In the winter, storms erode the beach and cause transport of sediment offshore. In the summer, milder waves move the sand back onshore. While offshore transport is fairly well understood, onshore transport is not. I am investigating the physical processes that are responsible for onshore sediment transport. Specifically, I am studying the effect of wave nonlinearity (asymmetry and skewness) on the cross-shore sediment transport. References: D. Gonzalez-Rodriguez and O. S. Madsen. Seabed shear stress and bedload transport due to asymmetric and skewed waves. Coastal Engineering 54 (12), pp. 914-929, 2007. DOI:10.1016/j.coastaleng.2007.06.004 - Preprint D. Gonzalez-Rodriguez and O. S. Madsen. Bedload due to asymmetric and skewed waves plus a current. Proceedings of the 31st International Conference on Coastal Engineering. Hamburg, September 2008. To appear.
ICCE 2006 poster presentation:  Abstract - Poster
	Nearshore hydrodynamics due to nonlinear, random waves Master's work with Ole Madsen In my Master’s thesis, I studied the hydrodynamics of the surf zone as a first step towards predicting sediment transport. I applied a wave-by-wave approach in which random waves were modeled as a series of monochromatic components. The results of this detailed probabilistic approach were then used to calibrate a simple spectral wave model. Matthew Pires, a UROP student, worked with us during the Summer 2008 in an ongoing extension of this project. Reference: Modeling of nearshore hydrodynamics for sediment transport calculations. M.S. Thesis, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, February 2006. Download
	Reciprocal locomotion of dense swimmers in Stokes flow with Eric Lauga Purcell's (1977) scallop theorem precludes a reciprocal swimmer (such as a one-hinged scallop) from propeling itself at zero Reynolds number. How much inertia is necessary to overcome this constraint? Previous studies have described the breakdown of the scallop theorem with fluid inertia. In contrast, we study the effect of particle inertia and demonstrate that reciprocal, dense swimmers are able to propel themselves even in the absence of fluid inertia. Reference: D. Gonzalez-Rodriguez and E. Lauga. Reciprocal locomotion of dense swimmers in Stokes flow. Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, in press. To appear in the special issue of the journal on "Swimming at low Reynolds numbers." arXiv:0810.0462  pdf
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