High resolution infrared imagery of breaking waves in a wave-tank free of wind shear or current reveals the production of a “streaky,” quasi-periodic thermal pattern produced during the breaking process. The streaks, or elongated patterns of warm and cold fluid, are found to form only when surface turbulence is present before wave breaking occurs. This suggests that wave-turbulence interaction is one mechanism that can lead to streak formation in breaking wave systems. More specifically, the streaky structures observed in these experiments may be caused by an intense, rapid tilting, and stretching of pre-existing vertical vorticity by the Stokes drift generated at or near the breaking wave crests, thereby generating a coherent system of counter-rotating vortices. We attempt to relate our observations to the recent theory of Teixeira and Belcher [J. Fluid Mech. 458, 229–267 (2002) https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022112002007838]. Some properties of the streaks, such as the dependence of their lifetimes and spanwise scale on wave amplitude, are presented.
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December 2012
Letter|
December 05 2012
Infrared imagery of streak formation in a breaking wave Available to Purchase
Robert A. Handler;
Robert A. Handler
a)
1
Texas A&M University
, Department of Mechanical Engineering, College Station, Texas 77843-3123, USA
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Ivan Savelyev;
Ivan Savelyev
2
Naval Research Laboratory
, Remote Sensing Division, Washington, DC 20375, USA
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Michael Lindsey
Michael Lindsey
3
Stanford University
, Palo Alto, California 94305, USA
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Robert A. Handler
1,a)
Ivan Savelyev
2
Michael Lindsey
3
1
Texas A&M University
, Department of Mechanical Engineering, College Station, Texas 77843-3123, USA
2
Naval Research Laboratory
, Remote Sensing Division, Washington, DC 20375, USA
3
Stanford University
, Palo Alto, California 94305, USA
a)
Electronic mail: [email protected].
Physics of Fluids 24, 121701 (2012)
Article history
Received:
September 17 2012
Accepted:
November 14 2012
Citation
Robert A. Handler, Ivan Savelyev, Michael Lindsey; Infrared imagery of streak formation in a breaking wave. Physics of Fluids 1 December 2012; 24 (12): 121701. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4769459
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