Transport due to Transient Progressive Waves

TL;DR

This paper investigates the transport effects of transient progressive waves, including breaking waves, using numerical simulations and a Lagrangian analysis, revealing larger transport than steady waves and proposing a stochastic model for breaking effects.

Contribution

It introduces a numerical analysis of transport by transient waves, including breaking, and proposes a stochastic model to account for breaking-induced variability.

Findings

Transport by transient waves exceeds steady wave transport.

Breaking increases variability in transport.

A stochastic velocity component models breaking effects.

Abstract

We describe and analyze the mean transport due to transient progressive waves, including breaking waves. The waves are packets and are generated with a boundary-forced air-water two-phase Navier Stokes solver. The analysis is done in the Lagrangian frame. We show that the transport generated by these waves is significantly larger than the transport generated by steady waves. The numerically generated parcel paths suggest a model for the transport that is primarily driven by an irrotational approximation of the velocity. Wave breaking is shown to increase the variability in the transport. Breaking is accounted for in the transport model via an additive stochastic velocity term.