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Current generation by deep-water breaking waves

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 August 2016

N. E. Pizzo ,
Luc Deike  and
W. Kendall Melville
N. E. Pizzo*
Affiliation:
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0213, USA
Luc Deike
Affiliation:
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0213, USA
W. Kendall Melville
Affiliation:
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0213, USA
*
†Email address for correspondence: npizzo@ucsd.edu
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Abstract

We examine the partitioning of the energy transferred to the water column by deep-water wave breaking; in this case between the turbulent and mean flow. It is found that more than 95 % of the energy lost by the wave field is dissipated in the first four wave periods after the breaking event. The remaining energy is in the coherent vortex generated by breaking. A scaling argument shows that the ratio between the energy in this breaking generated mean current and the total energy lost from the wave field to the water column due to breaking scales as $(hk)^{1/2}$, where $hk$ is the local slope at breaking. This model is examined using direct numerical simulations of breaking waves solving the full two-phase air–water Navier–Stokes equations, as well as the limited available laboratory data, and good agreement is found for strong breaking waves.

JFM classification

Geophysical and Geological Flows: Air/sea interactions Waves/Free-surface Flows: Wave breaking Waves/Free-surface Flows: Waves/Free-surface Flows
Type
Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 803 , 25 September 2016 , pp. 275 - 291
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Copyright
© 2016 Cambridge University Press 

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