Skip to main content
Article
Bubble and Droplet Size Distributions in Breaking Waves
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works
  • Wouter Mostert, Missouri University of Science and Technology
  • Stephane Popinet
  • Luc Deike
Abstract

We present size distributions of bubble and droplet populations generated by breaking waves using high-resolution direct numerical simulation of the two-phase Navier-Stokes equations with surface tension in three dimensions. We use the open-source code Basilisk with adaptive mesh refinement in order to achieve very high effective resolutions of up to 40963, resolving length scales ranging from the breaker wavelength down to sizes comparable to the bubble Hinze scale. The resulting solutions are feature-rich, generating statistical ensembles of bubble and droplet populations along with velocity fields for analysis of turbulence. In addition to the bubble and droplet statistics, we also discuss the role of transverse instabilities in the breakup of the large volumes of entrained air and the concomitant transition of turbulence from two to three dimensions in the breaker development. Finally, we discuss matters of numerical grid convergence with respect to the bubble and droplet size distributions at the smallest scales.

Meeting Name
Ocean Sciences Meeting (2020: Feb. 16-21, San Diego, CA)
Department(s)
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Keywords and Phrases
  • Air-Sea Interactions
Document Type
Poster
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2019 American Geophysical Union (AGU), All rights reserved.
Publication Date
2-19-2020
Publication Date
19 Feb 2020
Citation Information
Wouter Mostert, Stephane Popinet and Luc Deike. "Bubble and Droplet Size Distributions in Breaking Waves" (2020)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/wouter-mostert/1/