.[1] Momentum transfer across the wind-driven breaking air-water interface under strong wind conditions was experimentally investigated using a high-speed wind-wave tank together with field measurements at normal wind speeds. An eddy correlation method was utilized to measure roughness length and drag coefficient from wind velocity components measured by laser Doppler and phase Doppler anemometers. As a result, a new model for the roughness length and drag coefficient was proposed for predicting momentum transfer across the sea surface under both normal and strong wind conditions using the universal relationship between energy and significant frequency of wind waves normalized by the roughness length. The model shows that the roughness length and drag coefficient are uniquely determined at all wind speeds by energy and significant frequency of wind waves, and they can be given against U 10 only from the measurements of the wave parameters and one-point mean air velocity in the logarithmic law region. Citation: Takagaki, N., S. Komori, N. Suzuki, K. Iwano, T. Kuramoto, S. Shimada, R. Kurose, and K. Takahashi (2012), Strong correlation between the drag coefficient and the shape of the wind sea spectrum over a broad range of wind speeds, Geophys.

Heat and momentum transfer across the wind-driven breaking air–water interface at extremely high wind speeds was experimentally investigated using a high-speed wind-wave tank. An original multi-heat-balance method was utilized to directly measure latent and sensible heat transfer coefficients. The results show that both heat transfer coefficients level off at low and normal wind speeds but increase sharply at extremely high wind speeds. The coefficients have a similar shape for wind speeds at a height of 10 m. Therefore, the wind speed dependence on the latent and sensible heat transfer coefficients can be represented by that of the enthalpy coefficient even in the extremely high-speed region. To show how significantly the drag and enthalpy coefficients affect the intensity of tropical cyclones, the coefficients were applied to Emanuel’s analytic model. The analytic model shows that the difference between the present laboratory and conventional correlations significantly affects the maximum storm intensity predictions, and the present laboratory enthalpy and drag coefficients have the remarkable effect on intensity promotion at extremely high wind speeds. In addition, the simulations of strong tropical cyclones using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model with the present and conventional correlations are shown for reference in the appendix. The results obtained from the models suggest that it is of great importance to propose more reliable correlations, verified not only by laboratory but also by field experiments at extremely high wind speeds.

A three-dimensional direct numerical simulation is applied to wind-driven turbulence with sheared gas-liquid interface, and turbulence structure in interfacial boundary layers on both gas and liquid sides and scalar transfer mechanism across the gas-liquid interface are investigated. In order to capture the deforming gas-liquid interface, an arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian formulation method is employed. The results show that fluid motions are strongly affected by wind waves with ripples on the liquid side. The wind waves and ripples enhance the turbulence on the liquid side. For the present wind speed of several meters per second, the scalar transfer across the sheared wavy gasliquid interface is mainly controlled by the streamwise vortices related to the downward bursting motions on the liquid side.

Previous studies have demonstrated the saturation of drag coefficients at strong wind speeds. But the mechanism behind this saturation has not yet been fully clarified. In this study, at normal and strong wind speeds, we use a wind‐wave tank for investigating the peak enhancement factor of the wind‐sea spectrum, which is an appropriate wave parameter for representing interfacial flatness. We measured the water‐level fluctuation using wave gauges. At strong wind speeds, the result shows that the peak enhancement factor of the wind‐sea spectrum decreases with decreasing inverse wave age and with increasing wind speed. This suggests that the distinctive wind‐wave breaking occurs at strong wind speeds. It also suggests that this distinctive breaking of wind waves causes the saturation of drag coefficients at strong wind speeds.

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A B S T R A C T Mass transfer velocity k L across the wind-driven airÁwater interface was estimated at extremely high wind speeds (up to U 10 070 m s(1 ) in a high-speed wind-wave tank by measuring changes in CO 2 concentration in the water. In addition, the volume flux of dispersing droplets lost from the tank and the wave height were measured. k L increases drastically with wind speed at extremely high wind speeds. The volume flux of dispersing droplets begins to increase drastically and the mean height of significant waves changes its rate of increase at almost the same wind speed as that at which the rate of increase of k L changed. These results suggest that intense wave breaking occurs at extremely high wind speeds and it has significant effects on mass transfer. k L is well correlated with the free-stream wind speed for both present laboratory and previous field measurements in the low and moderate wind speed regions. Present k L agrees well with the conventional correlation curves proposed by Wanninkhof (1992), Wanninkhof and McGillis (1999)

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A total of 11 grids in four families, including single- and multi-scale grids, are tested to investigate the development and decay characteristics of grid-generated turbulence. Special attention has been focused on dissipation and non-equilibrium characteristics in the decay region. A wide non-equilibrium region is observed for fractal square grids with three and four iterations. The distributions of the Taylor microscale λ, integral length scale Lu, and dissipation coefficient Cε show that a simple combination of large and small grids does not reproduce elongated non-equilibrium regions as realized by the fractal square grid. On the other hand, a new kind of grid, quasi-fractal grids, in which the region of the smaller fractal elements (N=2–4) of the fractal square grid is replaced by regular grids, successfully reproduce a similar flow field and non-equilibrium nature to that seen in the fractal square grid case. This suggests that the combination of large square grid and inhomogeneously arranged smaller grids produces an elongated non-equilibrium region. The dissipation coefficient Cε is better collapsed using Re0=t0U∞/ν (where t0 is the thickness of the largest grid bar, U∞ the inflow velocity, and ν the kinematic viscosity) as a global/inlet Reynolds number rather than ReM=MU∞/ν (where M is the mesh size) [P. C. Valente and J. C. Vassilicos, “Universal dissipation scaling for non-equilibrium turbulence,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 214503 (2012)].