Dipl.-Phys. Elisabeth Schulz

With my Diplom thesis on the turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rate in the Rhine region of freshwater influence (ROFI), I acquired detailed knowledge about physical processes in the coastal ocean, especially about estuarine circulation, river plumes, tidal straining and strain-induced periodic stratification (SIPS), tidal current ellipses as well as turbulent kinetic energy production, consumption and dissipation. For the investigation of these processes, I set up an idealised numerical simulation by means of the General Estuarine Transport Model (GETM).

At the Estuarine and Coastal Fluid Dynamics Summer School 2009 at the Friday Harbor Laboratories (Friday Harbor, San Juan Island, WA, USA) I learned a lot (more) on fluid mechanics at estuarine and coastal scales (tides, turbulence, hydrolics of layered flows, estuarine dynamics, physics of beaches and morphological evolution, buoyant coastal currents, flow over rough topography or through a constriction, coastal internal waves, wind-driven coastal currents). Furthermore, I gained insight into oceanographic measuring instruments and techniques (e.g. ADCP transects and CTD casts).

For my PhD, I want to investigate the influence of the channel's aspect ratio, the Simpson number and other parameters on the stratification and the (residual) circulation in tidally energetic estuaries. GETM is used for the idealised two-dimensional simulations.