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A kinetic model for particle–surface interaction applied to rain falling on water waves

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2016

Fabrice Veron  and
Luc Mieussens
Fabrice Veron*
Affiliation:
School of Marine Science and Policy, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA
Luc Mieussens
Affiliation:
Université de Bordeaux, IMB, UMR 5251, F-33400 Talence, France
*
†Email address for correspondence: fveron@udel.edu
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Abstract

We present a model for estimating the momentum flux from water drops falling onto a moving free surface. The theory is based on a kinetic approach whereby individual drops are modelled as point particles with mass and velocity, and are described collectively by a distribution function $f(t,\boldsymbol{x},\boldsymbol{v},r)$. We show that the resulting momentum flux can be readily incorporated into free-surface Navier–Stokes and Euler models. As an illustration of this approach we examine the interaction between rainfall and linear deep-water surface waves. This particular application is not fundamentally different from the study of Le Méhauté & Khangaonkar (J. Phys. Oceanogr., vol. 20 (12), 1990, pp. 1805–1812), but our methodology is more general and is novel in its use of a kinetic approach with an all-purpose drop distribution function. The applicability of the model to linear surface waves is found to be valid for surface-wave wavelengths ranging from approximately 3 to 250 m. We further show that rainfall modifies the usual wave dispersion relationship and induces wave amplification, or damping, depending on the rain rate, the rain impact angle and the wavelength of the surface wave. We solve for the amplification and damping rates analytically and show, among other results, that rain falling vertically will always damp the surface waves.

JFM classification

Geophysical and Geological Flows: Air/sea interactions Drops and Bubbles: Drops Waves/Free-surface Flows: Surface gravity waves
Type
Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 796 , 10 June 2016 , pp. 767 - 787
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Copyright
© 2016 Cambridge University Press 

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