Personal statement
I joined Strathclyde in 2019 as a Chancellor’s Fellow in Energy, and hold a joint appointment as a lecturer in both Civil & Environmental Engineering and Chemical and process Engineering. I am a geologist by background, but my research routinely bridges disciplines. Having spent time in Geoscience, Materials Science and Engineering departments, I regularly bring methods across traditional subject and area boundaries, especially at the interfaces between geology, materials science, environmental science and engineering.
My main research interests lie in understanding the behaviour and evolution of both natural and man-made materials. More specifically it is questions about how the microstructure of a material evolves through time, and therefore changes the properties and behaviour of the larger system that underpins most of my work. To do this, I use x-ray computed tomography to see inside materials and objects and quantify their internal structures, and a range of experimental and analytical methods to observe the physical, chemical and biological changes within the sample overtime.
Research interests
I apply x-ray tomography to investigate the textures within natural and man-made materials. The method is non destructive, and can be applied to a wide range of samples and sample sizes, and can be used on samples as they are heated, cooled, compressed, stretched, twisted, stirred or inundated by a range of different fluids.
My work focusses on the latest state-of-the-art 3D and real time 4D imaging techniques. In 4D studies, the ability to inside the sample as it undergoes a change allows us to collect a "movie", where each frame is a full 3D x-ray tomography image. In my own core research, the individual 3D images of the movie are each collected in under a second. For other studies it is enough to image every few seconds, few hours, or even every few months depending on the rate and magnitude of change you wish to observe. This allows me to track the location and interactions between particles or between bubbles, to quantify fracture propagation, to capture dissolution or precipitation as it occurs, to observe fluids passing through pore throats, or corrosion, or sintering, or root growth. The opportunities are almost endless.
Current research projects include:
- Multi-phase flows and rheology in complex and concentrated fluids (NERC-IRF)
- Understanding pore scale controls on slope stability to improve embankment and cutting resilience to climate change (ACHILLES)
- Diffusion and bubble growth in silicate melts
- In situ deformation of composite materials
- Damage zone development
- Continuous manufactuing
- Sustainable resource management
- Environmental management and remediation
- Sintering and densification processes
- Permeability evolution in the subsurface
- Subsurface fluid flow and fluid-rock interactions
- Pore scale processes
- Soil mechanics
- The physical-chemical-biological interactions that control soil fertility
PhD projects Available for 2021 start
I am happy to accept PhD students on projects starting in 2021. Please follow the links or contact me to find out more information about any of the projects below. If you are interested in working in another of the areas listed above, please contact me to discuss your project ideas.
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Pore-Scale Imaging of Cross Fault Flow in High Porosity Sandstones using High Pressure-Temperature Fluid Tomography
Please contact me for further information
No funding in place, but scholarship opportunities are still available for 2021 start.
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Microstructural controls on the rheology of complex fluids
Please contact me for further information
No funding in place, but scholarship opportunities are still available for 2021 start.
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From micro- to macro- understanding how pore-scale behaviours control slope stability in embankments and cuttings
Please contact me for further information
No funding in place, but scholarship opportunities are still available for 2021 start.
Current PhD Students
- Rory Brittain University of Strathclyde, Civil & Environmental Engineering.
Geosciences towards Net Zero
- Phil Salter University of Strathclyde, Civil & Environmental Engineering.
Geosciences towards Net Zero
- Andrea Kozlowski University of Strathclyde, Civil & Environmental Engineering.
Nuclear Disposal
- Izabella Otalega University of Strathclyde, Civil & Environmental Engineering.
Oil and Gas
- Tariro Gwandu Durham University,Enineering
Soil Mechanics, Sustainability
- Eloise Bretagne Durham University, Earth Sciences
Magmatism, Complex fluids
- Catriona Sellick Durham University, Earth Sciences
Enhanced Oil Recovery
- Bridie Davies University of East Anglia, Enviornmental Sciences
Volcanism, Hazard
- Nikos Apeiranthitis University of Durham, Earth Sciences
Enhanced Oil Recovery
Professional activities
- EURO-Conference on Rock Physics & Geomechanics
- Member of programme committee
- 30/8/2021
- EURO-Conference on Rock Physics & Geomechanics
- Organiser
- 30/8/2021
- An introduction to the GeoX Suite
- Organiser
- 15/2/2021
- ESRF - The European Synchrotron (External organisation)
- Member
- 2021
- X-ray tomography image analysis for engineers and geoscientists
- Organiser
- 2/12/2020
- I'm a Scientist, Get me out of here!
- Participant
- 30/11/2020
More professional activities
Projects
- The GeoX Suite: Environmental cells for NERC research usin in situ imaging
- Dobson, Kate (Principal Investigator)
- 01-Jan-2019 - 31-Jan-2020
- Doctoral Training Partnership 2020-2021 University of Strathclyde | Brittain, Rory
- Dobson, Kate (Principal Investigator) El Mountassir, Grainne (Co-investigator) Pytharouli, Stella (Co-investigator) Brittain, Rory (Research Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2021 - 01-Jan-2024
- The GeoX Suite: Environmental cells for NERC research using in situ imaging
- Dobson, Kate (Principal Investigator)
- Improving our understanding the natural world; how it has evolved, how it continues to evolve, and how it responds to human impacts and climate change are the main goals of all earth and environmental researchers. This work allows improvements in global stewardship, hazard mitigation, and more sustainable resource management. In recent years the development of very powerful x-ray imaging techniques allows us to see inside our samples without destroying them; meaning we understand the internal structures of rocks, soils, ice, plants, animals and man-made materials better than ever before.
However, the most cutting edge systems allow us to collect images in just fractions of a second and allow us to put experimental equipment inside the imaging equipment. This means that with the right experimental equipment we could improve our understanding of the processes themselves: by watching them happen. Imaging our geological samples under the relevant geological conditions could help us answer some of the outstanding challenges in earth and environmental research: working at high temperatures we could capture how bubbles drive volcanic eruptions; using pressurised fluid cells we could look at how corals adapt to changing ocean conditions; by imaging while we compress rocks under very high loads we could improve our understanding of fracture propagation during earthquakes; by working at low temperatures we could identify the processes controlling glacier movement or greenhouse gas release from melting permafrost, by imaging soil during wetting and drying we can understand how structure controls nutrient supply and drought resistance in plants; and if we combine pressure and temperature and deformation we can investigate how best to identify, extract and manage critical subsurface resources such as oil, gas, water, metals, minerals, and heat.
The GeoX suite of experimental apparatus does just that; allowing earth and environmental researchers to gain new insight and understanding into how the planet works. The equipment is also suitable for other applications.
Furnaces: single and dual zone clam-shell style furnaces capable of heating samples from room temperature to 1250C during x-ray imaging. Furnaces can be mounted on some deformation cells.
Uniaxial Deformation: 2 x 5kN uniaxial tension-compression deformation cells which allow deformation while imaging, at temperature (-20C to 180C) and/or under fluid saturated conditions
Triaxial deformation: A small volume triaxial cell capable of taking geological samples to reservoir pressures and temperatures
Flow: A set of pumps and associated cell components to allow in situ observation of flow in porous media. Can be coupled to thermal control and load cells. - 01-Jan-2021
- From fines migration to filter cake formation and back again: state-of-the-art in situ observation to understand pore scale processes
- Dobson, Kate (Principal Investigator)
- 01-Jan-2020 - 31-Jan-2024
- Exploiting thermally and microbially induced carbonate precipitation to improve reservoir storage integrity
- Dobson, Kate (Principal Investigator)
- 01-Jan-2020 - 30-Jan-2024
- IM3AGES In Situ Observation Suite
- Dobson, Kate (Principal Investigator)
- An in situ flow cell for real time 4D (3D + time) observation, capable of operation with a range of confining pressures, temperatures and fluid compositions
- 01-Jan-2020
More projects
Address
Civil and Environmental Engineering
James Weir Building
James Weir Building
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