Abstract
We present results from numerical simulation of an aqueous turbulent boundary layer underneath a dynamic air-water interface and driven by wind stress and pressure. The simulation results reveal distinct surface and flow structures of micro-breaking wind waves, including a bore-like crest preceded by parasitic capillary waves riding along the forward face and elongated streamwise velocity streaks in the backward face, and confirm the observations in the laboratory and field experiments. The results also highlight the potential impacts caused by the short-wavelength capillaries on the gravity dominant free-surface flows, and consequently reveal the necessity in incorporating such microscale processes in the parameterizations of fluxes across the air-sea interface.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Banner M.L., Phillips O.M. (1974) On the incipient breaking of small scale waves. J Fluid Mech 65:647–656
Banner M.L., Peregrine D.H. (1993) Wave breaking in deep water. Annu Rev Fluid Mech 25:373–397
Banner M.L., Peirson W.L. (1998) Tangential stress beneath winddriven air-water interfaces. J Fluid Mech 364:115–145
Csanady G.T. (1990) The role of breaking wavelets in air-sea gas transfer. J Geophys Res 95:749–759
Ebuchi N., Kawamura H., Toba Y. (1987) Fine structure of laboratory wind-wave surfaces studied using an optical method. Bound-Layer Meteor 39:133–151
Fedorov A.V., Melville W.K. (1998) Nonlinear gravity-capillary waves with forcing and dissipation. J Fluid Mech 354:1–42
Jessup A.T., Zappa C.J., Yeh H. (1997) Defining and quantifying microscale wave breaking with infrared imagery. J Geophys Res 102:23,145–23,153
Komori S., Nagaosa R., Murakami Y. (1993) Turbulence structure and mass transfer across a sheared air-water interface in wind-driven turbulence. J Fluid Mech 249:161–183
Longuet-Higgins M. (1992) Capillary rollers and bores. J Fluid Mech 240:659–679
Okuda K. (1982) Internal flow structure of short wind waves Part 1. On the internal vorticity structure. J Oceanogr Soc Japan 38:28–42
Peirson W.L., Banner M.L. (2003) Aqueous surface layer flows induced by microscale breaking wind waves. J Fluid Mech 479:1–38
Siddiqui M.H.K., Loewen M.R., Richardson C., Asher W.E., Jessup A.T. (2001) Simultaneous particle image velocimetry and infrared imagery of microscale breaking waves. Phys Fluids 13:1891–1903
Sullivan P.P., McWilliams J.C., Melville W.K. (2004) The oceanic boundary layer driven by wave breaking with stochastic variability. Part.1 Direct numerical simulations. J Fluid Mech 507:143–174
Tsai W.-T., Chen S.-M., Moeng C.-H. (2005) A numerical study on the evolution and structure of a stress-driven, free-surface turbulent shear flow. J Fluid Mech 545:163–192
Tsai W.-T., Hung L.-P. (2006) Three-dimensional modeling of smallscale processes in the upper boundary layer bounded by a dynamic ocean surface. To appear in J Geophys Res
Tsai W.-T. (1998) A numerical study of the evolution and structure of a turbulent shear layer under a free surface. J Fluid Mech 354:239–276
Tsai W.-T., Chen S.-M., Lin M.-Y., Hung L.-P. (2003) Molecular sublayers beneath the air-sea interface relative to momentum, heat and gas transports. Geophys Res Lett 30, 1968, doi:10.1029/2003GL018164
Yoshikawa I., Kawamura H., Okuda K., Toba Y. (1988) Turbulent structure in water under laboratory wind waves. J Oceangr Soc Japan 44:143–156
Zappa C.J., Asher W.E., Jessup A.T. (2001) Microscale wave breaking and air-water gas transfer. J Geophys Res 106:9385–9391
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2007 Springer-Verlag Berlin, Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Tsai, Wt., Hung, Lp. (2007). A Numerical Study on the Characteristic Flow Structures of a Micro-Breaking Wind Wave. In: Garbe, C.S., Handler, R.A., Jähne, B. (eds) Transport at the Air-Sea Interface. Environmental Science and Engineering. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-36906-6_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-36906-6_11
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-36904-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-36906-6
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)