Interaction of Surfactants with Shear Flows and Surface Waves
Abstract
The long-term objective is to develop noninvasive instrumentation and techniques for in situ measurements of the interfacial properties of the ocean, including the intrinsic viscoelastic properties. These intrinsic properties, as interpreted through the laws of mechanics, will be related to the apparent properties of the interface as deduced from the usual phenomenological approach of short-wave dampening. Ultimately, the intrinsic interfacial properties are required for computational models of the ocean surface, derived from first principals, to predict the shape, motion and other factors that influence radar scatter from a surfactant-influenced interface such as the ocean surface. The rapid increase in computing power in the past two decades has made it possible to numerically solve the exact equations of fluid motion over a moderate range of scales in time and space. And although the equations of motion for the flow in the air and in the sea, namely the Navier-Stokes equations, have been known for over a century and a half, the boundary conditions for these equations are generally unknown at a surfactant-influenced gas/liquid interface because the boundary conditions depend on the intrinsic (cf apparent) viscoelastic properties of the interface, measurements of which were not feasible until recently.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 30, 1997
- Accession Number
- ADA628926
Entities
People
- Amir Hirsa
Organizations
- Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute