Bubble Entrainment and Distributions under Breaking Waves

Qiang Gao, St. Anthony Falls Laboratory & University of Minnesota, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Minneapolis, MN, United States, Grant B Deane, University of California San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, San Diego, United States and Lian Shen, St. Anthony Falls Laboratory & University of Minnesota, MN, United States
Abstract:
Breaking waves and bubbles enhance the exchange of momentum and gas between
atmosphere and ocean, produce marine aerosol, and generate noise. The overall statistics of
bubbles has been studied extensively. However, the bubble entrainment and distribution
varying with time and space under breaking waves have not been investigated systematically.
In this study, we performed numerical simulations for wave breaking and bubbly flow using a
coupled resolved and subgrid scale bubble method. We defined a breaking wave surface using
the volume of fraction function after removing the bubbles and droplets contributions based on
a bubble and droplet identification tagging method. Based on the definition of the wave
surface, we studied the bubble entrainment depth, distributions, and velocities under breaking
waves with different initial wave steepness. The data and results can be used for
parameterizations of bubble effects in air-sea interaction processes.
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