Tim Finnigan

BASc MASc PhD MIEAust CPEng


School of Civil Engineering, Room 406
Phone: +61 2 9351 2126
Fax: +61 2 9351 3343
Email: T.Finnigan@civil.usyd.edu.au








Tim has recently left the School in March 2008 to persue other interests. Tim will still maintain some research links with us over the coming months, so we have left his profile online.

Research Interests & Current Projects

Environmental Fluid Mechanics: stratified flows, internal hydraulics, convectively driven flows;
Ocean Power Conversion: Wave, tidal and marine current power conversion
Fresh Water Infrastructure: Fresh water production, storage and distribution infrastructure

• The interaction of surface waves with arrays of non-circular vertical structures cylinders
• The effect of inertia in oscillating wave energy devices
• Wave momentum flux in the presence friction, currents and wind
• Unsteady convection in semi-bounded domains
• Experiments on internal hydraulic control in layered flows with friction
• Transient dynamics in convectively-driven exchange flows
• Performance analysis of a 500kW ocean wave power plant
• Bio-mimetic systems for ocean power conversion
• Development of a cost-effective water distribution technology for rural Australia

Selected publications

• Finnigan, T, 2004. “Model testing of a moored wave energy device”. Proceedings OMAE04, Offshore Mechanics and Ocean Engineering, June 2004 Vancouver.
• Finnigan, T. and Alcorn, R., 2003. “Numerical simulation of a variable-pitch turbine with speed control”. Proceedings EWEC03, the Fifth European Wave Energy Conference, September 2003, Cork, Ireland.
• Finnigan, T.D., Luther, D.S., Lukas, R., 2002. “Observations of enhanced diapycnal Mixing near the Hawaiian Ridge”, J. Phys. Ocean., 32(11), 2988-3002.
• Finnigan, T.D., Winters, K.B., and Ivey, G.N., 2001. “Response characteristics of a buoyancy driven sea”. J. Phys. Ocean., 31(9), 2721-2736.
• Finnigan, T.D. and Ivey, G.N., 2000. “Convectively driven exchange flow in a stratified sill-enclosed basin”. J. Fluid Mech., 418, 313-338.
• Finnigan, T.D. and Ivey, G.N., 1999. “Submaximal exchange between a convectively forced basin and a large reservoir”. J. Fluid Mech., 378, 357-378.
• Finnigan, T.D., Allen, S.E., and Lawrence, G.A., 1998. “Physical modeling of an outflow event in Howe Sound, British Columbia”. J. Geophys. Res., 103(D4), 3937-3950.

Professional Service and Memberships

• Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng)
• Member of the Institute of Engineers Australia (MIEAust)
• Member of the College of Civil Engineering, Australia
• Member of the International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers