Most of my research is concerned with applications and extensions of the particle method Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics. The essentials of this technique for fluid dynamics are described in my review articles (Annual Reviews of Astronomy and Astrophysics 1992, and Reports on Progress in Physics 2005). 

The early applications were to astrophysical problems, particularly the stability of binary star systems and the formation of stars. I became interested in applications to incompressible or nearly incompressible fluids (see the early paper in 1994) in order to understand more about the archaeological problem of the demise of the Minoans. The Minoans were rapidly replaced by the Myceneans at more or less the same time as the bronze age volcanic eruption of Santorini. One possible reason was that the eruption produced a tsunami which led to the desctruciton of coastal communities on Crete, with subsequent widespread political and social unrest. The key physical questions were first, how effectively could tsunamis be be generated by a volcano and second, what damage would be caused on neighbouring islands . This led to our studies of wave generation and wave breaking by both experiment and simulation.  Many of these topics have been taken up by Hydrologists and Marine Engineers.

My current interests include the use of SPH to simulate the swimming of linked bodies, the simulation of multi-phase flow in the context of sloshing in the tanks ships carrying LNG, the simulation of turbulence, and the modelling of ice sheets using non-newtonian fluid rheologies,