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The role of wave-induced pressure fluctuations in the transfer processes across an air–water interface

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2006

Yiannis Alex Papadimitrakis
Affiliation:
Environmental Fluid Mechanics Laboratory, Department of Civil Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305
En Yun Hsu
Affiliation:
Environmental Fluid Mechanics Laboratory, Department of Civil Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305 Present address: College of Marine Studies, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716.
Robert L. Street
Affiliation:
Environmental Fluid Mechanics Laboratory, Department of Civil Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305

Abstract

The structure of the pressure and velocity fields in the air above mechanically generated water waves was investigated in order to evaluate their contribution to the transfer of momentum and energy from wind to water waves. The measurements were taken in a transformed Eulerian wave-following frame of reference, in a wind-wave research facility at Stanford University.

The organized component of the fluctuating static pressure at the channel roof was found to contain contributions from both the sound field and the reflected water wave. The acoustic contributions were accounted for by appropriately correcting the pressure amplitude and phase (relative to the wave) and its contribution to the momentum and energy exchange. The wave-induced pressure coefficient at the fundamental mode shows in general an exponential decay behaviour with height, but the rate of decay is different from that predicted by potential-flow theory. The wave-induced pressure phase relative to the wave remains fairly constant throughout the boundary layer, except when the ratio of the wave speed to the freestream velocity, c/Uδ0 = 0.78 and 0.68. This phase difference was found to be about 130° during active wave generation, with the pressure lagging the wave. The momentum and energy transfer rates supported by the waves were found to be dominated by the wave-induced pressure, but the transfer of the corresponding total quantities to both waves and currents may or may not be so dominated, depending on the ratio c/Uδ0. The direct contribution of the wave-induced Reynolds stresses to the transfer processes is negligible.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1986 Cambridge University Press

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