Photo of Prof Gavin Tabor

Prof Gavin Tabor

Professor of Computational Fluid Dynamics

Email:

Location: Harrison 113 or Harrison 235

Telephone: 01392 723662

Extension: (Streatham) 3662

I am a member of the Centre for Water Systems and the Computational Engineering group.  I graduated from Christs College Cambridge in 1990 with a 1st in Theoretical Physics, then did a Ph.D. in Theoretical Astrophysics at the Department of Physics at Oxford. Changing both location and research area, I then worked as a RA in Prof. David Gosman's research group at Imperial College, London, for 5 years. During this time I worked on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) of multiphase flows and the modeling of premixed turbulent combustion, and contributed towards the CFD code now known as OpenFOAM. I was appointed as a lecturer at Exeter in October 1999. I am a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and member of the Computational Physics Group committee of the IOP, Chair of the Joint Technical Committees for the OpenFOAM Governance effort, and a member of the international OpenFOAM Workshop Committee.

Research Interests

My core research is in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD); both the fundamental basis and applications; also optimisation using CFD through Adjoint Optimisation and using Machine Learning techniques such as Bayesian Optimisation. Current projects include

Other areas of interest include optimisation with CFD and machine learning, offshore renewable energy, turbulence simulation, Image Based Meshing, biomedical simulations and multiphysics simulation. I am part of the Collaborative Computational Project in Wave-Structure Interaction, and am involved in organising both the UK&RI OpenFOAM Users Group and the international OpenFOAM Workshop (which was held in Exeter in 2017; the next one will be in Dublin in 2021). I work with a range of companies including Hydro International, HiETA, Simpleware, Wikki, ESI-OpenCFD.

Teaching Interests

  • Fluid Dynamics
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics

Some recent papers

"Automated shape optimisation of a plane asymmetric diffuser using combined Computational Fluid Dynamic simulations and multi-objective Bayesian methodology", S. J. Daniels, A. A. M. Rahat, G. Tabor, J. Fieldsend, and R. M. Everson., Int.J.Comp.Fluid Dyn. DOI: 10.1080/10618562.2019.1683165 (2019).

"Reynolds-Averaged Two-Fluid Model prediction of moderately dilute fluid-particle flow over a backward-facing step", M. Riella, R. Kahraman G.R. Tabor, Int. J. Multiphase Flow 106 pp 95 - 108 (2018)

"Improving the quality of finite volume meshes through genetic optimisation", B. Fabritius, G. Tabor, Engineering with Computers 32#3 pp. 425 - 440 (2016) 

"Investigation of the Performance of a staggered Configuration of Tidal Turbines Using CFD", M.G.Gebreslassie, G.R.Tabor, M.R.Belmont, Renewable Energy Journal 80 pp. 690 – 698 (2015)

Other Relevant Information

Qualifications : PhD in Theoretical Astrophysics, Oxford