Grad Profile
Grad student makes splash in shallow waterjet study

By Jim Snyder

Mechanical Engineering PhD student Abdul-Monsif Shinneeb. Photo by Jim Snyder

Canada, and especially Saskatchewan, is brimming with natural lakes and rivers so Abdul-Monsif Shinneeb, who received his MSc in his native Libya, came to the University of Saskatchewan for the chance to study a particular water issue firsthand.

“My study focuses on the confinement effects in shallow water jets,” said the Mechanical Engineering PhD grad. “In simpler terms, I study the behaviour of a circular jet flow discharging into a shallow body of water. This configuration is similar to the discharge of industrial and domestic waste into rivers, oceans, and lakes. It is interesting to understand the effects of the shallowness on the flow structure – turbulent flow structure. Turbulent flow occurs when the flow velocity is high, or the fluid viscosity is low, which is the case in many important engineering applications.

The goal, Shinneeb explains, is to make progress toward understanding one of the least understood phenomena – turbulent flow. Although understanding the effects of confinement resulting from shallowness on turbulent jet flow would help answer some key questions about mixing of waste discharge with the environment, the study itself has a much wider focus.”

Indeed, the type of flow that Shinneeb has been studying has applications in many different scientific areas, such as air flow around planes, cars, and buildings.

Although there have been shallow jet water studies in the past, Shinneeb points out he has taken a unique approach in his research. “This is the first study to use spatial information to investigate structure of the turbulent flow. Previous research was either qualitative or based on one point measurement, which focused on the mean behaviour of the flow. My study, however, was quantitative, meaning that I provided the turbulence community with numbers, not pictures.”

In doing so, Shinneeb has made significant progress in understanding turbulent flow within shallow boundaries. “My research was exclusively experimental, using a measurement technique that can measure the flow at multiple points. To analyse my results, I also wrote several different codes that helped extract useful information from a large amount of data using the computer.”

His work has also received high praise in the academic community, as evidenced by the many papers that he has published since he began his research at the U of S. “I have had five papers published so far, and I still have several papers that I hope to finish soon.”

Even though Shinneeb successfully defended his doctorate in August, he is far from finished with the subject. On September 1, he began a Post-doctoral position at the University of Windsor where he plans to continue his work in turbulence field. “My research has opened many questions,” Shinneeb admits. “It is far from done, but at least I have made some progress in this field.”