Mechanical modelling of the stability of Earth's peatland carbon reservoirs

Project description

The project involves the development of mechanical models of peatland growth and restoration. Peat is a soft multiphase (solid, liquid, gas) material that stores 1/3 of earth’s terrestrial carbon. Current models combine mass balance and hydrology but none consider the mechanical stability of the peat. This is a huge oversight as the extremely weak multiphase peat body should deform with ease and this deformation must influence gas emissions and long term stability. The project will develop novel numerical models of peat growth and the mechanical response of peat to the changes in loading, mass balance and hydrology. The student will have the opportunity to visit peatlands in the UK and Malaysia and to link their work to geospatial observations.

This project is jointly supervised by Dr David Large in the School of Chemical & Environmental Engineering, Dr Bagus Muljadi in the School of Chemical & Environmental Engineering and Professor Neil Crout in the School of Biosciences.