About
Dr Joseph Banks is a Lecturer in Ship Science/Maritime Engineering at the University of Southampton. He specialises in experimental and computational fluid dynamics with particular interests in high performance sport, fluid structure interactions and the performance of sailing and wind-assitsted ships.
Responsibilities:
Admissions Team for Maritime Engineering degree programs
Editorial Board member for Journal of Sailing Technology
Secretary of the 28th International Towing Tank Conference (ITTC) specialist committee ‘Energy Saving Methods’
Member of the 29&30th International Towing Tank Conference (ITTC) specialist committees ‘Combined CFD/EFD methods’
You can update this in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading and then ‘Curriculum and research description’, select ‘Add profile information’. In the dropdown menu, select - ‘About’.
Write about yourself in the third person. Aim for 100 to 150 words covering the main points about who you are and what you currently do. Clear, simple language is best. You can include specialist or technical terms.
You’ll be able to add details about your research, publications, career and academic history to other sections of your staff profile.
Research
Research interests
- Performance sport engineering;
- Experimental methods for fluid structure interaction problems;
- Performance of sailing vessels and wind assited ships;
- Numerical methods for determining resistance and propulsion.
Current research
Performance sport engineering
I work closely with the UK Sports Institute (UKSI) to improve athletes’ performance through a greater understanding of the physical mechanisms of resistance and propulsion. This research mainly focuses on the sports of Swimming, Sailing, Rowing and Bob-skeleton and supports British Athletes at the Olympic games.
Performance of sailing vessels and wind-assisted ships
My personal interest in the sport of sailing means that I have keen professional interest in understanding the physics behind a yacht’s performance and how we can use the wind to reduce the emmisions from commercial ships. This predominantly focuses of the fluid dynamics involved in sailing, from the aerodynamic forces that propel the vessel forward to the hydrodynamic forces generated by the hull, keel, rudder, propeller or hydrofoils.
I am currently leading the 2 year innovate UK funded research program 'Winds of Change' with Smart Green Shipping Ltd to install their FastFig wing sails on a ship for the first time.
Experimental methods for fluid structure interaction problems
Increased use of composite materials is leading to more flexible structures being designed to operate in a marine environment (for example composite propellers and hydrofoils). The ability to quantify the impact of structural deformations is crucial to maximising their performance. Developing experimental methods for measuring the structural deformations (such as Digital Image Correlation) can be combined with flow field measurements (such as Particle Image Correlation) to understand how the fluid and structure interact.
Numerical methods for determining resistance and propulsion
Computational fluid dynamics allows detailed simulations of the flow structures that develop around a body moving through the water. This allows the physical causes of different resistance components and propulsive mechanisms to be quantified and their interactions understood. These techniques can be used to help improve the efficiency of a commercial ship, the performance of lifting surfaces in sailing or minimise a swimmer’s drag.
You can update the information for this section in Pure (opens in a new tab).
Research groups
Any research groups you belong to will automatically appear on your profile. Speak to your line manager if these are incorrect. Please do not raise a ticket in Ask HR.
Research interests
Add up to 5 research interests. The first 3 will appear in your staff profile next to your name. The full list will appear on your research page. Keep these brief and focus on the keywords people may use when searching for your work. Use a different line for each one.
In Pure (opens in a new tab), select ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading 'Curriculum and research description', select 'Add profile information'. In the dropdown menu, select 'Research interests: use separate lines'.
Current research
Update this in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘Edit profile’ and then ‘Curriculum and research description - Current research’.
Describe your current research in 100 to 200 words. Write in the third person. Include broad key terms to help people discover your work, for example, “sustainability” or “fashion textiles”.
Research projects
Research Council funded projects will automatically appear here. The active project name is taken from the finance system.
Publications
Pagination
Public outputs that list you as an author will appear here, once they’re validated by the ePrints Team. If you’re missing any outputs that you’ve added to Pure, they may be waiting for validation.
Supervision
Current PhD Students
Contact your Faculty Operating Service team to update PhD students you supervise and any you’ve previously supervised. Making this information available will help potential PhD applicants to find you.
Teaching
SESS3027: Module lead for ‘Yacht and high performance craft’
SESS6067: ‘Renewable energy from environmental flows’
SESS6063: ‘Advances in Ship Resistance and Propulsion’ – Towing tank lab coordinator
You can update your teaching description in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading and then ‘Curriculum and research description’ , select ‘Add profile information’. In the dropdown menu, select – ‘Teaching Interests’. Describe your teaching interests and your current responsibilities. Aim for 200 words maximum.
Courses and modules
Contact the Curriculum and Quality Assurance (CQA) team for your faculty to update this section.
External roles and responsibilities
These are the public-facing activities you’d like people to know about.
This section will only display on your public profile if you’ve added content.
You can update your external roles and responsibilities in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘+ Add content’ and then ‘Activity’, your ‘Personal’ tab and then ‘Activities’. Choose which activities you want to show on your public profile.
You can hide activities from your public profile. Set the visibility as 'Backend' to only show this information within Pure, or 'Confidential' to make it visible only to you.
Biography
I graduated from the University of Southampton in 2009 with a First Class degree in Ship Science (Yacht and Small Craft). Growing up as a keen sailor this combined my passion for yachts with my technical curiosity of how to improve performance.
I continued to study for a PhD working with British Swimming and UK Sport during the build-up to the London 2012 Olympic Games. This work developed experimental tools for coaches and athletes to use in a pool environment and numerical simulations investigating the resistance components of a swimmer.
Following my PhD I worked as a research fellow developing experimental methods for assessing the performance of passive adaptive composite structures. I continued to work closely with elite sports and now lead the University’s research partnership with the UK Sports Institute (UKSI).
My research primarily focuses on the fluid dynamics involved in the resistance and propulsion of ships, yachts, athletes and their equipment (including swimming, sailing and rowing).
You can update your biography section in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select your ‘Personal’ tab then ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading, and ‘Curriculum and research description’, select ‘Add profile information’. In the dropdown menu, select - ‘Biography’. Aim for no more than 400 words.
This section will only appear if you enter the information into Pure (opens in a new tab).
Prizes
You can update this section in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘+Add content’ and then ‘Prize’. using the ‘Prizes’ section.
You can choose to hide prizes from your public profile. Set the visibility as ‘Backend’ to only show this information within Pure, or ‘Confidential’ to make it visible only to you.