Air entrainment and gas transfer processes in wave breaking events

Abstract

We investigate gas transfer processes occurring at the air-water interface of progressive water waves using high-fidelity numerical simulations. Waves with varying initial steepness, including regular wave patterns, mild spilling and intense plunging breakers are examined. A multiphase solver is employed to model gas flux and diffusion processes enabling precise estimation of the air-water interface area and gas transfer velocity, achieving an accuracy unattainable in experiments. We reveal that the volume of gas transferred across the air-water interface increases significantly with the amount of air entrained due to wave breaking, peak values in the gas transfer velocity being concurrent with peaks in energy dissipation rate and air entrainment. Furthermore, the gas transfer velocity is observed to scale approximately as the one-fourth power of the energy dissipation rate, consistent with previous theoretical predictions. We anticipate that the present findings can help reduce the substantial uncertainty associated with parameterizing fundamental natural processes, such as CO2 absorption by the oceans.

Locations

• arXiv (Cornell University) - View - PDF