I am interested in fluid dynamics, particularly problems motivated by environmental and geophysical applications. My research aims to model and interpret physical phenomena in the real world through mathematical approximations, numerical simulations and analogue laboratory experiments. I am currently a Lecturer in Applied Mathematics within the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Melbourne.

In 2023, I was awarded a three-year ARC DECRA Fellowship (2024-2027) to investigate ‘Fluid dynamics of Underground Hydrogen Storage’.

Current research

Areas that I am currently interested in or have previously worked on include:

• Geologic CO2 storage and underground hydrogen storage
• Solute transport and diffusion in porous media
• Instabilities in flow in Hele-Shaw cells and porous media
• Non-Newtonian flows including yield-stress and granular materials, and inverse rheometry
• Free-surface viscous flows
• Modelling lava flows and their interaction with barriers and topography

Current position

Jan 2023 – continuing    Lecturer in Applied Mathematics, The University of Melbourne.

Education

2016-2020 PhD in Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, supervised by Prof. Andrew Woods.

2011-2015 Master’s in Mathematics, St John’s College, University of Oxford.

Previous positions

Jan 2021 – Dec 2022  Harcourt-Doig Research Fellow, The University of Melbourne.

2020 Early Career Research Fellow at The University of Bristol. Three months of research supported by the London Mathematical Society, supervised by Prof. Andrew Hogg.

2018 Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Summer Fellow at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Ten weeks in Cape Cod studying viscous flows. Supervised by Prof. Andrew Hogg and Prof. Herbert Huppert.

2015-2016 Graduate Analyst at HSBC Global Banking and Markets, Canary Wharf, London.

Please email me if you would like a preprint/accepted version of any of the articles below.

• [SUBMITTED] Hinton, E.M. ‘Microbial growth within porous gravity currents’.
• [SUBMITTED] Sader, J.E., Hou, W., Hinton, E.M., Pullin, D.I. & Colonius, T. ‘The starting vortices generated by a translating and rotating flat plate in a viscous fluid’.

1. [IN PRESS] Hinton, E.M., Leonard, A., Pullin, D.I. & Sader, J.E. ‘Starting vortices generated by an arbitrary solid body with any number of edges’, Journal of Fluid Mechanics.
2. Hinton, E.M. & Slim, A.C. 2024. (Open Access) ‘Propagation of a viscous gravity current beneath a granular layer’, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 985 (A18).
3. Christy, I. & Hinton, E.M. 2023. (Open Access) ‘Two-layer gravity currents of generalised Newtonian fluids’, Proceedings of the Royal Society A, 479 (20230429).
4. Hinton, E.M. & Slim, A.C. 2023. (Open Access) ‘Dynamics and containment of a viscous liquid atop a granular bed’, Journal of Fluid Mechanics Rapids, 969 (R3).
5. Hinton, E.M., Hewitt, D.R. & Hogg, A.J. 2023. (Open Access) ‘Obstructed free-surface viscoplastic flow on an inclined plane’, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 964 (A35).
6. Hinton, E.M., Collis, J.F. & Sader, J.E. 2023. ‘The motion of a layer of yield-stress material on an oscillating plate’, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 959 (A32).
7. Lister, J.R. & Hinton, E.M. 2022. ‘Using a squeegee on a layer of viscous or viscoplastic fluid’, Physical Review Fluids, 7, (104101).
8. Hinton, E.M. & Jyoti, A. 2022. (Open Access) ‘Buoyancy segregation suppresses viscous fingering in horizontal displacements in a porous layer’, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 946 (A48).
9. Saville, J.M., Hinton, E.M., & Huppert, H.E. 2022. (Open Access) ‘Predicting Safe Regions within Lava Flows over Topography’, Journal of Geophysical Research – Solid Earth, (e2022JB024167). arxiv.org/abs/2207.05917
10. Hinton, E.M. , Collis, J.F. & Sader, J.E. 2022. (Open Access) ‘A layer of yield-stress material on a flat plate that moves suddenly’, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 942 (A30).
11. Hinton, E.M. 2022. (Open Access) ‘Inferring rheology from free-surface observations’, Journal of Fluid Mechanics Rapids, 937 (R4).
12. Hinton, E.M. & Hogg, A.J. 2022. ‘Flow of a yield-stress fluid past a topographical feature’, Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics, 299:104696 accepted_pdf
13. Grenfell-Shaw, J.C., Hinton, E.M. & Woods, A.W. 2021. (Open Access) ‘Instability of co-flow in a Hele-Shaw cell with cross-flow varying thickness’, Journal of Fluid Mechanics Rapids, 927 (R1). accepted_pdf
14. Hinton, E.M. & Hogg, A.J. 2021. (Open Access) ‘Modelling the influence of a variable permeability inclusion on free-surface flow in an inclined aquifer’, Water Resources Research, 57 (e2020WR029195). accepted_pdf
15. Hinton, E.M. & Woods, A.W. 2021. (Open Access) ‘Capillary trapping in a vertically heterogeneous porous layer’, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 910 (A44).
16. Hinton, E.M. , Hogg, A.J. & Huppert, H.E. 2020. ‘Viscous free-surface flows past cylinders’, Physical Review Fluids, 5 (084101). accepted_pdf
17. Hinton, E.M. & Woods, A.W. 2020. (Open Access) ‘Shear dispersion in a porous medium. Part 2. An intrusion with a growing shape’, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 899 (A39).
18. Hinton, E.M. & Woods, A.W. 2020. (Open Access) ‘Shear dispersion in a porous medium. Part 1. An intrusion with a steady shape’, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 899 (A38).
19. Hinton, E.M. 2020. ‘Axisymmetric viscous flow between two horizontal plates’, Physics of Fluids, 32 (063104). Featured article. accepted_pdf
20. Hinton, E.M. , Hogg, A.J. & Huppert, H.E. 2020. ‘Shallow free-surface Stokes flow around a corner’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, 378:20190515. accepted_pdf
21. Hinton, E.M. , Hogg, A.J. & Huppert, H.E. 2019. ‘Interaction of viscous free-surface flows with topography’, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 876 (912-938). accepted_pdf
22. Hinton, E.M. & Woods, A.W. 2019. ‘The effect of vertically varying permeability on tracer dispersion’, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 860 (384-407). accepted_pdf
23. Hinton, E.M. & Woods, A.W. 2018. ‘Buoyancy-driven flow in a confined aquifer with a vertical gradient of permeability’, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 848 (411-429). accepted_pdf

My PhD can be found (open access) here

Please email ehinton@unimelb.edu.au if you are interested in undertaking graduate research with me in one of my research interests.

Some possible avenues are:

For undergraduates: SCIE30001 projects and Vacation Scholarships

For MSc students: apply for the Master of Science and then find a supervisor.

For PhD students: scholarships are available for excellent students.

I also have a funded PhD position as part of the DECRA project ‘Fluid dynamics of underground hydrogen storage’ (open to any nationality), co-supervised with A/Prof Anja Slim (Monash). Please email me for more details, or see here.

Previous and current supervisions and co-supervisions are listed below:

• H. Zhou (MSc). 2024-2025. Title TBC.
• K. Phan (SCIE30001 Project). 2024. Title TBC.
• K. Phan (Vacation Scholar). 2024. Title: ‘Finite difference methods for viscoplastic stick-slip flow’.
• E. Bai (Vacation Scholar). 2024. Title: ‘A pendulum analogue for landslide dynamics’.
• M. Walker (PhD). 2023 – present. Title: ‘Inertial effects in viscoplastic free-surface flows’.
• F. Ur Rehman (PhD, Monash University). 2023 – present. Title: ‘Capillary effects in granular media’.
• H. Zhou (SCIE30001 Research Project). 2023. Title: ‘Coral flows at low Bingham number’.
• T. He (SCIE30001 Research Project). 2023. Title ‘Deposition in inclined evaporating rivulets’.
• T. Bunnage (MSc). 2022-24. Title: ‘Dynamics of withdrawal in Underground Hydrogen Storage’.
• S.B. Cartajena (MSc). 2022-23. Title: ‘Cooling of a lava flow smooths topographic undulations’.
• I.B. Christy (MSc). 2021-22. Title: ‘Basal sliding laws and two-layer flow of generalized Newtonian fluids’.
• J.M. Saville (Vacation Scholar, Cambridge). 2021. Title: ‘Predicting Lava flow over topography’.

Email: ehinton@unimelb.edu.au

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