MODELING OF SEA SPRAY DROPLETS IN THE OCEAN

Abstract

Droplets are known to play an important role in momentum, heat, and moisture transfer between the ocean and atmosphere. A lot of scholars and experts aim to investigate the effects of droplets on the climate and make precise forecast for hurricane conditions. So the profiles of droplets concentration at different heights above the sea surface are important. For a better study of the momentum and energy transport among the boundary layer, we also need to know the distribution of droplets with different radii. After wave break, with the coupled effects of inertia, gravity, wind updraught, and turbulent mixing, droplets can be transported to certain heights above the sea surface. In the present study, we develop a modified subgrid-scale flow field model coupled with the large eddy simulation to investigate the profiles of spay droplets concentration after wave break. The results in our simulation show that, the distribution of the droplets with the same radii in vertical direction is roughly Gaussian distribution, and the maximum appears at the height nearly above the significant wave height. For different radii, the concentration of droplets with larger radii can be higher than that of the smaller ones at some heights. Since the droplets in our model only include the spay droplets generated by wave break, the data will not be identical with the measurement in the open ocean and laboratory, which include all the kinds of droplets above the ocean.

Keywords

Dates

  • Submission Date2014-04-13
  • Revision Date2014-05-04
  • Acceptance Date2014-07-18
  • Online Date2015-01-04

DOI Reference

10.2298/TSCI1405577Z

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