Search for: All records

Abstract This study focuses on the influence of the sea spray polydispersity on the vertical transport of momentum in a turbulent marine atmospheric boundary layer in high-wind conditions of a hurricane. The Eulerian multifluid model treating air and spray droplets of different sizes as interacting interpenetrating continua is developed and its numerical solutions are analyzed. Several droplet size distribution spectra and correlation laws relating wind speed and spray production intensity are considered. Polydisperse model solutions have confirmed the difference between the roles small and large spray droplets play in modifying the turbulent momentum transport that have been previously identified by monodisperse spray models. The obtained results have also provided a physical explanation for the previously unreported phenomenon of the formation of thin low-eddy-viscosity “sliding” layers in strongly turbulent boundary layer flows laden with predominantly fine spray. Significance StatementAchieving better accuracy in hurricane forecasts requires an in-depth understanding and accurate modeling of the ocean spray effect on the vertical fluxes of momentum and heat in a hurricane boundary layer. It has been shown that this effect depends on the size distribution of spray droplets, also known as spray polydispersity. This study aims to investigate the influence of a polydisperse spray on the vertical momentum transport within hurricane boundary layers by employing a modern theory of turbulent disperse multiphase flows.