Oxford DPhil student wins prize at 2023 Osborne Reynolds Day

Oxford DPhil student Daniel Dehtyriov recently won a prize at the 2023 Osborne Reynolds Day, which showcases the best doctoral research projects in fluid mechanics in the UK. The event was hosted by the University of Manchester, and is named in honour of Osborne Reynolds, who was a pre-eminent fluid mechanist and Professor of Engineering at the University of Manchester.

The 2023 Osborne Reynolds PhD competition offers prestigious awards that celebrate the quality of students and graduates who have been pursuing doctoral level research across the broad domain of fluid mechanics. Students from any area of fluid mechanics can enter and, following a complex two-stage review process by an expert assessment panel, six finalists are invited to present their work to a wide-ranging audience on the day. An expert panel of senior fluids academics assess the presentations to award the Osborne Reynolds prize and identify runners-up.

Many congratulations to Daniel, who was one of two runners up awarded for his doctoral research project on “Flow physics beyond the Betz limit”. The Betz limit was an important pivotal theoretical result that demonstrated that the limit of energy extraction for a wind or tidal stream turbine is close to 60%. Daniel’s work aims to extend this to more realistic flow conditions, leading to increased energy extraction efficiencies, paving the way for next-generation turbines. Daniel is supervised by Dr Christopher Vogel and Professor Richard Willden.

Daniel will now be nominated as a UK candidate to the 18^th da Vinci competition in Liège, organised by ERCOFTAC – the European Research Community On Flow, Turbulence And Combustion which spans academia and industry, supports Special Interest Groups and runs conferences and workshops across Europe. The nurturing of early career talent is central to its mission and the annual da Vinci competition brings together the best recent PhD graduates selected from across Europe.