Dr Andy Nichols
School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering
Senior Lecturer in Water Engineering and Director of General Engineering
+44 114 222 0256
Full contact details
School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering
Room E108
Sir Frederick Mappin Building (Broad Lane Building)
Mappin Street
߲ݴý
S1 3JD
- Profile
-
By developing new sensing and monitoring technologies, and new AI-driven asset management techniques, my research aims to improve water infrastructure management by reducing costs and risks, increasing safety, and maximising efficiency.
Dr Andrew Nichols
Andy joined the department in 2015 after working as a research associate on several industry and EPSRC-funded projects. He was appointed as a Lecturer for the new cross-faculty General Engineering interdisciplinary degree programme.
Part of Andy's research is dedicated to developing new sensing technology for the water industry, utilising optical, electrical, acoustic, and infrared principles. His expertise in instrumentation design facilitates the understanding of hydro-environmental processes. Additionally, he collaborates with companies to validate sensing technologies, and he serves as Chair of the Sensors for Water Interest Group (SWIG.org.uk).
Andy's research extends to investigating flowing water surfaces and developing technologies to measure them, enabling the identification of hydraulic processes. He aims to establish connections with other hydro-environmental processes such as greenhouse gas evasion, pollutant mixing, and sediment transport, resulting in international patents and national awards.
In addition to his work in the water industry, Andy specialises in novel machine learning-based methods for asset management. He has collaborated extensively with Network Rail on numerous projects focused on monitoring, modelling, and managing drainage infrastructure more effectively. His efforts aim to reduce failure and flood risks, safeguarding train operations and rail customers while enhancing overall asset management strategies. For his work in this field, he was awarded a Royal Academy of Engineering Industrial Fellowship.
His research spans from laboratory studies in collaboration with academic colleagues to field studies with industrial partners and local authorities. Andy's multidisciplinary approach and collaboration with industry partners underscore his commitment to addressing real-world challenges in engineering and environmental sciences.
- Research interests
-
Water infrastructure
Sensor development
Infrastructure management
Asset degradation
Whole-life costing
Railway engineering
- Publications
-
Journal articles
- . Frontiers in Environmental Science, 10.
- . JCIS Open, 5, 100044-100044.
- . Journal of Hydraulic Research, 60(2), iii-iii.
- . Journal of Infrastructure Systems, 27(3), 04021023-04021023.
- . Water Science & Technology.
- . Journal of Hydraulic Research, 59(2), ciii-ciii.
- . Journal of Hydraulic Research.
- . Sensors, 20(20).
- . Sensors, 20(12).
- . Water Science and Engineering, 12(4), 274-283.
- . International Journal of Ocean and Coastal Engineering, 1(2).
- . Flow Measurement and Instrumentation.
- . Journal of Hydraulic Research/De Recherches Hydrauliques.
- . International Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluids, 83(1), 3-27.
- . Applied Acoustics, 110, 13-22.
- . Journal of Hydraulic Research, 54(5), 516-526.
- . Review of Scientific Instruments, 85(11).
- . Flow Measurement and Instrumentation, 34, 118-126.
- . JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-EARTH SURFACE, 118(3), 1864-1876.
- . Water Practice and Technology, 8(3-4), 461-468.
- . The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 130(4), 2436-2436.
- . The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 130(4), 2513-2513.
- . The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 129(3), EL89-EL93.
- . The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 128(4), 2327-2327.
- . The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 128(4), 2327-2327.
- . Journal of Hydraulic Research, 1-15.
- . Acta Geophysica.
Chapters
- , ICE Handbook of Urban Drainage Practice (pp. 229-254). Emerald Publishing Limited
- Use of sensors in hydrological-hydraulic model calibration, ICE Handbook of Urban Drainage Practice (pp. 404-410).
- In Rowiński P & Marion A (Ed.), Hydrodynamic and Mass Transport at Freshwater Aquatic Interfaces
- , River Flow 2014 (pp. 287-292). CRC Press
- , Fluid-Structure-Sound Interactions and Control (pp. 283-288). Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Conference proceedings papers
- . Proceedings of the IAHR World Congress (pp 6658-6663)
- . Proceedings of the 39th IAHR World Congress, 19 June 2022 - 24 June 2022.
- . Proceedings of the 39th IAHR World Congress, 19 June 2022 - 24 June 2022.
- . Proceedings of the IAHR World Congress (pp 6601-6607)
- . Proceedings of the IAHR World Congress (pp 5119-5126)
- . Proceedings of the IAHR World Congress (pp 1843-1851)
- . PROCEEDINGS OF THE 39TH IAHR WORLD CONGRESS (pp 5119-5126)
- A Teaching Sandwich Approach to Integrating Classroom and Practical Teaching. 5 TH Annual Symposium of the United Kingdom & Ireland Engineering Education Research Network: “Time for Change” Symposium Proceedings (pp 87-90). London, UK, 23 November 2017 - 24 November 2017.
- Student-led online revision tools as an innovative assignment. 5 TH Annual Symposium of the United Kingdom & Ireland Engineering Education Research Network: “Time for Change” Symposium Proceedings (pp 117-117). London, UK, 23 November 2017 - 24 November 2017.
- . Proceedings of the 5th IAHR Europe Congress — New Challenges in Hydraulic Research and Engineering (pp 785-786). Trento, Italy, 12 June 2018 - 14 June 2018.
- . Proceedings of the 5th IAHR Europe Congress - New challenges in hydraulic research and engineering (pp 727-728). Trento, Italy, 12 June 2018 - 14 June 2018.
- The Kinect sensor as a tool for remote flow characterisation. Proceeding of the 37th IAHR World Congress, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 13-18 August, 2017 (pp 5600-5607), 13 August 2017 - 18 August 2017.
- Remote sensing of environmental processes via low-cost 3d free-surface mapping. Proceedings of the 4th IAHR Europe Congress - Liege, Belgium, 27 July 2016 - 29 July 2016.
- (pp 210-217)
- (pp 186-192)
- TURBULENT FLOW SURFACE DYNAMICS. PROCEEDINGS OF THE 36TH IAHR WORLD CONGRESS (pp 3032-3041)
-
- Shallow gravel-bed river flows: The behaviour of the free surface and the flow information contained within. River Flow 2014 (pp 301-309)
- (pp 301-309)
- A cartesian grid method flow shallow water flows over a gravel bed. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Hydroscience & Engineering, 4 November 2012 - 7 November 2012.
- Visualizing the variation in normality of a turbulent velocity field. River Flow 2012 - Proceedings of the International Conference on Fluvial Hydraulics, Vol. 1 (pp 85-89)
- Characterization of shallow flows using novel acoustic instrumentation. River Flow 2012 - Proceedings of the International Conference on Fluvial Hydraulics, Vol. 2 (pp 1285-1292)
- An airborne acoustic method to monitor the hydraulic characteristics of shallow water flows. 34th IAHR Congress 2011 - Balance and Uncertainty: Water in a Changing World, Incorporating the 33rd Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium and the 10th Conference on Hydraulics in Water Engineering (pp 817-824)
- Ultrasonic characterisation of rough water surface in turbulent open channel flows. Proceedings of Forum Acusticum (pp 2451-2453)
- Sonic Characterisation of Water Surface Waves. ADVANCES IN HYDRAULIC PHYSICAL MODELING AND FIELD INVESTMENT AND INVESTIGATION (pp 40-47)
- Characterisation of particles from food waste disposers and their expected behaviour in sewers. Proceedings of the 14th IWA/IAHR International Conference on Urban Drainage
- Sensing of free-surface patterns in opaque flows using Kinect. Proceedings of HydroSenSoft 2017
Theses / Dissertations
- FREE SURFACE DYNAMICS IN SHALLOW TURBULENT FLOWS.
Preprints
- , Research Square Platform LLC.
- . Frontiers in Environmental Science, 10.
- Research group
-
Water - Environmental Fluid Mechanics
SuDS (Sustainable Drainage Systems) and Urban Drainage
- Grants
-
Co-UDLABS (Building Collaborative Urban Drainage research lab communities) is a Horizon 2020 project funded under the Research Infrastructures programme (INFRAIA-02-2020 - Integrating Activities for Starting Communities).
The KTP project, in collaboration with Hydro International, will deliver a system for monitoring sediment loads and predicting maintenance requirements in stormwater treatment technologies.
- Teaching interests
-
Interdisciplinary engineering
Engineering design
Fluid mechanics
- Teaching activities
-
Andy is the Director of General Engineering, a unique interdisciplinary course at ߲ݴý. Andy also teaches fluid mechanics and interdisciplinary design. Andy has developed and employed a number of novel techniques in his teaching, demonstrating these at pedagogical conferences and earning him several awards in recognition of his teaching excellence.
- Professional activities and memberships
-
- Chair of the Sensors for Water Interest Group (SWIG)
- 21st Harold Jan Schoemaker Award for best paper in the Journal of Hydraulic Research
- Outstanding Teaching Award in the ߲ݴý Students Union Academic Awards 2018
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
- Member of the Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management
- ߲ݴý Early Career Researcher Scheme 2015
- CIWEM new generations competition 2012 winner
- IAHR UK young person’s paper competition 2012 winner
- SWIG early career researcher competition 2012 winner
- SET for Britain 2012 finalist
- Royal Academy of Engineering Industrial Fellowship in Railway Drainage Infrastructure Management
- PhD opportunities
Andy currently has capacity to take on a limited number of new PhD students. Please contact him directly if this is of interest.