Study of The Fundamental Dynamics of Water Wave Effects on Turbulence for Environmental Applications

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PI: Shen, LianProposal Number: 1605080The proposed research is focused on the study of turbulence generated close to the flow structures known as Langmuir cells. These are pairs of large, horizontal counter-rotating vortices that appear in the ocean and in lakes and are aligned in the wind and wave direction. They play an important role in many environmental problems including the transport of oil spills at sea, transfer of greenhouse gases between the atmosphere and oceans, and the transport and mixing processes in lakes that affect aquatic ecosystems. It is proposed to use Large Eddy Simulation (LES) models, where the numerical mesh continuously adopts to the water surface deformation, to capture and understand the dynamics and the process of formation of Langmuir cells. This is a step change in modeling such flows, since current simulations and existing theories, like the Craik-Leibovich (C-L) model, simplify the flow assuming flat interfaces. The goal is to capture the formation and evolution of Langmuir cells directly, without the simplifications of the (C-L) model. Detailed descriptions of the flow field will be used to investigate the fundamental mechanisms of turbulence fluctuations and vortex dynamics in Langmuir cells, based on which the C-L theory will be corrected and updated. This research could impact our understanding of transport of oil spills at sea, transfer of greenhouse gases between the atmosphere and oceans, and the transport and mixing processes in lakes that affect aquatic ecosystems. As part of the educational scope of the project, Native American high school students will be introduced to environmental fluid mechanics through their participation in summer camp activities co-organized by the PI.