Hostname: page-component-669899f699-ggqkh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-27T18:20:28.822Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The turbulent layer in the water at an air—water interface

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2006

Tak Kee Cheung  and
Robert L. Street
Tak Kee Cheung
Affiliation:
UGAR Scientist at Naval Environmental Prediction Research Facility, Monterey, CA 93943-5006. USA
Robert L. Street
Affiliation:
Environmental Fluid Mechanics Laboratory, Department of Civil Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The velocity fields beneath an air—water interface have been determined in a laboratory facility for the cases of wind-generated waves, with wind speeds ranging from 1.5 to 13.1 m/s, and of wind-ruffled mechanically generated waves of about 22 mm amplitude and 1 Hz frequency, with wind speeds ranging from 1.7 to 6.2 m/s. The velocity was measured in a fixed frame of reference with a two-component, laser-Doppler anemometer. It was possible to determine the lengthscales and evaluate the behaviour of the mean, wave-related and turbulent components of the flows. The waves affect the mean flows, even though the profiles remain essentially logarithmic and the wave field conforms generally with the results of linear theory. In the wind-wave cases the turbulent quantities behave similarly to those in flows over flat plates. They have different trends in the mechanical-wave cases, suggesting a coupling between waves and turbulence. Finally, measured values of the mean wave-induced shear stress were negative, leading to an energy transfer from the waves to the mean flow.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 194 , September 1988 , pp. 133 - 151
Copyright
© 1988 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Benilov, A. Yu., Kouznetsov, O. A. & Panin, G. N. 1974 On the analysis of wind wave-induced disturbances in the atmospheric turbulent surface layer. Boundary-Layer Met. 6, 269–285.Google Scholar
Bliven, L. F., Huang, N. E. & Long, S. R. 1984 A laboratory study of the velocity field below surface gravity waves. In Gas Transfer at Water Surfaces (ed. W. Brutsaert & G. H. Jirka), pp. 181–190. Reidel.
Bole, J. B. & Hsu, E. Y. 1969 Response of gravity water waves to wind excitation. J. Fluid Mech. 35, 657–675.Google Scholar
Bowden, K. F. & White, R. A. 1966 Measurements of the orbital velocities of sea waves and their use in determining the directional spectrum. Geophys. J. R. Astron. Soc. 12, 33–54.Google Scholar
Bye, J. A. T. 1967 The wave-drift current. J. Mar. Res. 25, 95–102.Google Scholar
Cavaleri, O., Ewing, J. A. & Smith, N. D. 1978 Measurement of the pressure and velocity field below surface waves. In Turbulent Fluxes Through the Sea Surface, Wave Dynamics, and Prediction (ed. A. Favre & K. Hasselmann), pp. 257–272. Plenum.
Cheung, T. K. 1984 A study of the turbulent layer in the water at an air—water interface. Ph.D. dissertation, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Stanford University (also available as Tech. Rep. 287, 1985).
Dobroklonskiy, S. V. & Lesnikov, B. M. 1975 A laboratory study of the dynamic characteristics of drift currents in the presence of wind-driven waves. Izv. Akad. Nauk. SSSR Atmos. Ocean. Phys. 11, 590–595.Google Scholar
Donelan, M. A. 1978 Whitecaps and momentum transfer. In Turbulent Fluxes Through the Sea Surface, Wave Dynamics, and Prediction (ed. A. Favre & K. Hasselmann), pp. 273–288. Plenum.
Goossens, L. H. J., van Pagee, H. J. A. & Tessel, P. J. 1982 Vertical turbulent diffusion in air—driven water flows. J. Hydrul. Div., ASCE 108, 995–1009.Google Scholar
Howe, B. M., Chambers, A. J., Klotz, S. P., Cheung, T. K. & Street, R. L. 1981 A preliminary report on velocity and temperature measurements above and beneath an air—water interface: the data set. Stanford University, Dept Civil Eng., Tech. Rep. 261.
Howe, B. M., Chambers, A. J., Klotz, S. P., Cheung, T. K. & Street, R. L. 1982 Comparison of profiles and fluxes of heat and momentum above and below an air—water interface. Trans. ASME C: J. Heat Transfer 104, 34–39.Google Scholar
Hsu, C. T., Hsu, E. Y. & Street, R. L. 1981 On the structure of turbulent flow over a progressive water wave: theory and experiment in a transformed, wave-followins coordinate system. J. Fluid Mech. 105, 87–117.Google Scholar
Hussain, A. K. M. F. 1983 Coherent structures — reality and myth. Phys. Fluids 26, 2818–2850.Google Scholar
Hussain, A. K. M. F. & Reynolds, W. C. 1970 The mechanics of an organized wave in turbulent shear flow. J. Fluid Mech. 41, 241–258.Google Scholar
Jones, I. S. F. & Kenney, B. C. 1977 The scaling of velocity fluctuations in the surface mixed layer. J. Geophys. Res. 82, 1392–1396.Google Scholar
Kitaigorodskii, S. A., Donelan, M. A., Lumley, J. L. & Terray, E. A. 1983 Wave—turbulence interactions in the upper ocean. Part II: Statistical characteristics of wave and turbulent components of the random velocity field in the marine surface layer. J. Phys. Oceanogr. 13, 1988–1999.Google Scholar
Klebanoff, P. S. 1955 Characteristics of turbulence in a boundary layer flow with zero pressure gradient. NACA Rep. 1247.
Kline, S. J. & McClintock, F. A. 1953 Describing uncertainties in single-sample experiments. Mech. Engng 75, 3–8.Google Scholar
Kondo, J. 1976 Parameterization of turbulent transport in the top meter of the ocean. J. Phys. Oceanogr. 6, 712–720.Google Scholar
Lin, J. & Gad-el-Hak, M. 1984 Turbulent current measurements in a wind-wave tank. J. Geophys. Res. 89, 627–636.Google Scholar
McLeish, W. L. & Putland, G. E. 1975 Measurements of wind-driven flow profiles in the top millimeter of water. J. Phys. Oceanogr. 5, 516–518.Google Scholar
Moffat, R. J. 1981 Contribution to the theory of uncertainty analysis for single-sample experiments, Vol. I. The 1980–81 AFOSR-HTTM-Stanford Conference on Complex Turbulent Flows. Stanford University Dept. Mech. Eng., Thermoscience Div.
Navrotskii, V. V. 1967 Waves and turbulence in the ocean surface layer. Oceanology, Akad. Nauk. SSSR 7, 755–766.Google Scholar
Phillips, O. M. 1977 The Dynamics of the Upper Ocean, 2nd edn. Cambridge University Press.
Phillips, O. M. & Banner, M. L. 1974 Wave breaking in the presence of wind drift and swell. J. Fluid Mech. 66, 625–640.Google Scholar
Reynolds, W. C. & Hcssain, A. K. M. F. 1972 The mechanics of an organized wave in turbulent shear flow. Part 3. Theoretical models and comparisons with experiments. J. Fluid Mech. 54, 263–288.Google Scholar
Schlichting, H. 1979 Boundary-Layer Theory, 7th edn. McGraw-Hill.
Shemdin, O. H. 1972 Wind-generated current and phase speed of wind waves. J. Phys. Oceanogr. 2, 411–419.Google Scholar
Shonting, D. H. 1964 A preliminary investigation of momentum flux in ocean waves. Pure Appl. Geophys. 57, 149–152.Google Scholar
Shonting, D. H. 1967 Measurements of particle motions in ocean waves. J. Mar. Res. 25, 162–181.Google Scholar
Shonting, D. H. 1968 Autopectra of observed particle montion in wind waves. J. Mar. Res. 26, 411–419.Google Scholar
Shonting, D. H. 1970 Observations of Reynolds stresses in wind waves. Pure Appl. Geophys. 81, 202–210.Google Scholar
Simpson, J. H. 1969 Observations of the directional characteristics of sea waves. Geophys. J. R. Astron. Soc. 17, 93–120.Google Scholar
Taira, K. 1971 Wave particle velocities measured with a Doppler current meter. J. Ocean. Soc. Japan 27, 218–232.Google Scholar
Takeuchi, K. & Mogel, T. R. 1975 A performance of a mini-computer. Rev. Scient. Instrum. 46, 686–691.Google Scholar
Tennekes, H. & Lumley, J. L. 1972 A First Course in Turbulence. MIT Press.
Thornton, E. B. & Krapohl, R. F. 1974 Water particle velocities measured under ocean waves. J. Geophys. Res. 79, 847–852.Google Scholar
Wang, J. & Wu, J. 1985 Wind-induced water turbulence. The Ocean Surface, pp. 401–406. Reidel.
Wu, J. 1968 Laboratory studies of wind-wave interactions. J. Fluid Mech. 34, 91–111.Google Scholar
Wu, J. 1975 Wind-induced drift currents. J. Fluid Mech. 68, 49–70.Google Scholar
Yefimov, V. V. & Khristoforov, G. N. 1969 Some features of the velocity field in the layer of wind-driven swell. Izv. Akad. Nauk. SSSR, Atmos. ocean. Phys. 5, 597–602.Google Scholar
Yefimov, V. V. & Khristoforov, G. N. 1971 Spectra and statistical relations between the velocity fluctuatiosn in the upper layer of the seas and surface waves. Izv. Akad. Nauk. SSSR, Atmos. Ocean. Phys. 7, 841–851.Google Scholar