Abstract
Two mathematical models are proposed detailing the influence of ocean spray on vertical momentum transport under high-wind conditions associated with a hurricane or severe storm. The first model is based on a turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) equation and accounts for the so-called lubrication effect due to the reduction of turbulence intensity. The second model is based on Monin–Obukhov similarity (MOS) and uses available experimental data. It is demonstrated that the flow acceleration is negligible for wind speeds below a certain critical value due to the fact that the spray volume concentration is low for such speeds. For wind speeds higher than the critical value, the spray concentration rapidly increases, which results in significant flow acceleration. Both models produce qualitatively similar results for all turbulent flow parameters considered. It was found that the MOS-based model tends to predict a noticeably stronger lubrication effect than the TKE-based model, especially for lower wind speeds. The results of model calculations are in very good agreement with available experimental data for the spray production values near the upper bound. It is also shown that neither the value of the turbulent Schmidt number in the TKE-based model nor the choice of a stability profile function affects the spray-laden flow dynamics significantly.
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Acknowledgments
The study of YR and YLL was supported by a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Educational Partnership Program under the cooperative agreement NA06OAR4810187.
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Open Access This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
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Rastigejev, Y., Suslov, S.A. & Lin, YL. Effect of Ocean Spray on Vertical Momentum Transport Under High-Wind Conditions. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 141, 1–20 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-011-9625-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-011-9625-1