Dr Sam Hartharn-Evans

Research Fellow

School: Geography and Natural Sciences

I am a researcher at Northumbria University in the Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences. I have an interest in understanding the physical processes in the ocean, and how they interact with different elements of the earth system. In particular, I research the processes surrounding the ice in the polar oceans, investigating the interactions between ice shelves ice and buoyant meltwater plumes in the laboratory (and laboratory scale numerical modelling). Previously I studied for a BSc in Marine Biology and Oceanography, an MSc in Physical Oceanography at Bangor University, and PhD in Applied Mathematics at Newcastle University. I maintain an interest in multidisciplinary applications of physical oceanography, and how these interact with the fluid dynamics.

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Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

My research focuses on understanding how the cryosphere and oceans interact in a variety of scales, primarily by using laboratory experiments and numerical models at the laboratory scale (direct numerical simulations). My PhD Project, investigated how oceanic internal solitary waves (which are waves travel along density interfaces within the water column, and act in a “solitary” manner) interacts with sea ice. This research is primarily laboratory based, using a 7m long flume tank in our laboratory, along with numerical simulations. I am currently working on a project to replicate the buoyant plume produced by melting beneath floating ice shelves in the laboratory

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
The three-dimensional state of stratified shear instability in cold water, Stastna, M., Bhavsar, K., Hartharn-Evans, S., Castro-Folker, N. May 2025, In: Physics of Fluids
A new approach to understanding fluid mixing in process-study models of stratified fluids, Hartharn-Evans, S., Stastna, M., Carr, M. 30 Jan 2024, In: Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics
Interactions Between Internal Solitary Waves and Sea Ice, Hartharn‐Evans, S., Carr, M., Stastna, M. Jan 2024, In: Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans
Dense pulses formed from fissioning internal waves, Hartharn-Evans, S., Stastna, M., Carr, M. 1 Apr 2023, In: Environmental Fluid Mechanics
Stratification effects on shoaling internal solitary waves, Hartharn-Evans, S., Carr, M., Stastna, M., Davies, P. 25 Feb 2022, In: Journal of Fluid Mechanics