Large Eddy Simulation of Droplet Transport Near Real Multispectral Waves*

Functions governing the generation of spray and aerosols at the sea surface are often estimated using the so-called flux profile method. Previous work has suggested that this simplified method is insufficient to capture the effects of surface waves, particularly where the advected spray droplets have significant inertia. The focus of this project is to further investigate the sensitivity of droplet dispersion to varying their initial inertia, velocity, and surface wave modes. Large-eddy simulations with inertial Lagrangian particles are used to resolve the turbulent transport of spray droplets in curvilinear coordinates above real wave tank data. The wave was obtained from the University of Delaware Air Sea Interaction Lab and is used as the dynamic bottom boundary of the simulation. The number of modes used to represent the wave is varied across different computational runs. During the simulation individual droplet characteristics are measured over these boundaries. A statistical analysis is performed on the resulting data with a focus on probability distributions of droplet characteristics at time of creation and destruction for each wave configuration. The effect varying initial droplet momentum and wave modes has on droplet dispersion is examined and discussed.