Research Associate for the Project “BASS” Sub-Project 2.2, “Impact of Surfactants on Wave Fields and Fluxes under varying Boundary Conditions” § 28 Subsection 3 HmbHG

Duties include academic services in the project named above. Research associates may also pursue further academic qualifications outside of their work responsibilities.

The specific goal of Subproject 2.2, “Impact of Surfactants on Wave Fields and Fluxes under varying Boundary Conditions”, is to understand and to quantify the strong impact varying boundary conditions have on the effect of surfactants on fluxes of energy, momentum, and matter across the SML. In order to achieve this goal, a unique, novel, and complex wind-wave-surfactant measurement system was developed during Phase I, with the ability to measure simultaneously coupled air-water boundary layer dynamics, the evolution of millimeter-scale surface roughness features, and the influence of surfactants thereon. The system comprises a unique combination of state-of-the-art video, laser, digital imaging, and radar technologies, capable of being combined with a Particle Image Verlocimetry (PIV) system at the wind-wave tank and with other SML measurement systems of BASS partners, and already showed great potential to provide measurements in complex wind-wave-surfactant conditions.

The successful applicant will actively participate in experimental campaigns at the University’s wind-wave tank facility, deploying video, laser, wire gauge, and radar sensors. She/he will help with the upgrade of the current experimental setup to allow measurements with heavy rain, natural and artificial seawater, and programmable wind-speed variations. She/he will perform wave measurements at a wide range of experimental conditions, including different wind speeds, mechanically generated waves, and surfactants of different concentration and visco-elastic properties to investigate if, how, and to what extent, different surfactant compositions change the overall spectral wave damping and fluxes of momentum and energy across the SML; to understand the role of a varying wind field within the complex interplay of wave growth and dissipation, at both clean and surfactant-covered water surfaces; to quantify the effect of heavy rain, in combination with different wind speeds, on the wave-damping capability of surfactants. Of particular interest during the joint campaigns with other sub-projects will be the influence of salinity on the results obtained. She/he will independently prepare, organize, and conduct dedicated experiments to meet the goals of Subproject 2.2, and will be responsible for the data analyses and the dissemination of the achieved results.

Information on the University of Hamburg’s wind-wave tank can be found at https://www.ifm.uni-hamburg.de/en/workareas/experimental/wind-wave-tank.html, on BASS’ Subproject 2.2 at https://www.ifm.uni-hamburg.de/en/workareas/experimental/projects/bassii.html, and on the research unit BASS at https://uol.de/en/bass.