Welcome to my research website. My research focuses on the hydrodynamics of coastal hazards, particularly hurricane-generated storm surges and waves, and their interactions with natural and built coastal environments, such as vegetation (e.g., mangroves), sediments (e.g., mixed fine materials with rock fragments), and built structures (coastal defenses, infrastructure, and buildings, and offshore floating platforms, wave/wind energy devices, etc.). My research aims to understand and improve the performance, resilience, and survivability of various gray and green objects in the coastal and ocean settings, in the face of extreme storm conditions and sea level rise. 

I integrate CFD modeling for fluid-structure interactions and the circulation + wave model for coastal hazards. I am familiar with both Eulerian and Lagrangian CFD methods, and I am the developer of the 3D parallel Particle-In-Cell (PIC) model (a hybrid Eulerian-Lagrangian CFD model) for coastal ocean engineering applications. Regarding coastal hazard models, I have been developing and applying the Coastal Estuarine Storm Tide (CEST) model with subgrid features, the TELEMAC modeling suite, and other models (e.g., Delft3D, SFINCS). I am also familiar with and have direct experience in wave flume/basin experiments, and am actively engaged in post-hurricane field surveys.

My work involves collaboration and support from NSF, NOAA, SFWMD, USACE, FDEP, and FPFLM. I served as PI on a fall-pipe rock dumping R&D study funded by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration. Through these responsibilities, I have also gained experience in flood mapping, remote sensing, severe convective storms, especially hail, and machine learning. During my PhD study in the UK, I have built strong connections to research groups in Europe focusing on fluid-structure interaction research. 

My research interests are:

• Hurricane-induced Coastal Flooding, Storm Surge, Wave Overtopping;

• Natural and Nature-based Coastal Defense, Mangroves;

• Wave-Structure Interaction;

• Renewable Wave and Wind Energy;

• Fallpipe Rock Dumping, Multiphase flow;

• CFD solver and NLSW equation solver development;

• High-performance computing, parallelization.

BIOGRAPHY

Academic background

2017, Ph.D. (Civil Engineering), Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, University of Bath, UK (co-supervised by HR Wallingford Ltd, UK)

2013, Master (Harbor, Coastal and Offshore Engineering), State Key Laboratory of Coastal and Offshore Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, China

2010, Bachelor (Channel, Ports and Coastal Engineering), Hohai University, China

Appointments

2022 - present, Coastal Research Specialist, International Hurricane Research Center, Florida International University, US

2019 - 2022, Postdoctoral Research Associate, International Hurricane Research Center, Florida International University, US

2017 - 2019, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, University of Bath, UK

NEWS

Jan 2026

I will be presenting at the 39th International Conference on Coastal Engineering, 17-22 May 2026, Galveston, Texas. 

SELECTED WORK

Mixed Fluid-Solid Flows Modeling

CFD and NSWE Model Development and Parallelization

“为者常成，行者常至” 《晏子春秋》

"Those who act often succeed; those who walk often arrive"  Yanzi Chunqiu