Narayan Kumar is a Ph.D. candidate and graduate research assistant at the University of Delaware’s Center for Applied Coastal Research (CACR). His passion for coastal engineering stems from a deep interest in understanding how extreme hydrodynamic forces shape beach profiles and impact coastal communities. His core research focuses on high-fidelity numerical modeling of nearshore wave breaking, swash zone turbulence, and hydro-morphodynamic sediment transport processes.
To address the severe computational bottlenecks of traditional coastal modeling, Narayan integrates multi-phase solvers like SedInterFoam with machine learning frameworks, including Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks. By combining physical wave flume experiments, high-performance computing, and AI surrogate modeling, he is dedicated to developing open-source, scalable prediction tools that help coastal managers mitigate storm damage and adapt to sea-level rise
