Professor Curt Koenders BSc, MSc, PhD, MinstP, Cphys
Professor of Theoretical Mechanics
Prof. Curt Koenders is Visiting Professor within Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Southampton.
Professor Koenders (FIMA, CMath), MInstP, CPhys, (CSci) has a background in theoretical physics, notably in statistical mechanics. He has expertise in the theory of fluctuations in continuum mechanics, and much of his work has been concerned with developing the micromechanical basis for the behaviour of dense granular media including elastic-frictional densely packed material and slurry flows.
Assisted by funding from the Dutch Government, the US Air Force, industry in the UK and overseas, as well as EPSRC he has been able to apply theoretical techniques to erosion flows in geotechnical filters, the characteristics of densely packed media (including soil mechanics), the cake formation process in filtration and a number of contributions to geophysical flows. His cross-disciplinary interests have been enhanced by numerous collaborations both in the UK, the US and in Europe.
He has contributed some 100 scientific publications on topics in mechanics. He has been a frequent (invited) contributor to scientific and engineering conferences and enjoyed a fellowship at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences (Cambridge). He has had visiting fellowships and sabbaticals at a number of universities, both in the UK and in the US and has actively participated in European Union research programmes.
His interest in engineering has led him to contribute substantially to:
- The geotechnical calculation of the subsoil behaviour of the Storm Surge Barrier in the Easterscheld (Holland).
- The development of a novel vibrated filtration process, for which he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Filtration Society.
- The understanding of magmatic flow in porous media under volcanoes.
- The understanding of structures formation both in heterogeneous and granular materials and in non-Newtonian flow in heterogeneous porous materials.