Investigation of stimulated bag-breakup processes in laboratory modeling of wind-wave interaction

Abstract

The laboratory experiments for identification of mechanisms of the spume droplet's formation in marine atmospheric boundary layer, when strong wind tears off water from the crest of the waves, were carried out at the High-speed wind-wave flume of IAP RAS. The main mechanism responsible for the generation of spume droplets is bag breakup fragmentation of small-scale disturbances that arise at the air-water interface under the strong wind. This work concentrates on investigation of a separate bag-breakup event that was forced to occur in a dried high-speed wind-wave flume. The details of the bag-breakup fragmentation were investigated qualitatively and quantitatively using synchronized multiperspective high-speed video recording in shadowgraph configuration.