Plunging Breakers - Part 2. Droplet Generation

TL;DR

This study measures droplet sizes, velocities, and generation mechanisms produced by three different intensities of plunging breakers, revealing four main droplet formation processes and power law distributions that vary with breaker strength.

Contribution

It identifies and characterizes four primary mechanisms of droplet generation in plunging breakers and analyzes their effects on droplet size distributions across different breaker intensities.

Findings

Four droplet generation mechanisms identified.

Droplet size distributions follow power laws with a critical diameter increasing with breaker strength.

Distinct size distribution behaviors observed in different generation regions.

Abstract

The positions, diameters ($d\geq 100$ $\mu$m), times and velocities of droplets generated by three plunging breaking waves are measured as the droplets move up across a measurement plane located 1.2 cm above the highest point reached by the crests during breaking. The three breakers are created by dispersively focused wave packets that differ primarily only through the overall amplitude of the wave maker motion used to generate them. The breakers are designated qualitatively by their intensities: weak, moderate and strong. The droplets are measured with two in-line cinematic holographic systems operating at 650 holograms per second with measurement volumes that span the width of the tank. In combination with the wave profile measurements described in Part 1 of this two part paper, the droplet measurements are used to explore the mechanisms of droplet generation and the effects of these mechanisms on the measured properties of the droplets and their motion. It is found that there are four major mechanisms for droplet production, closure of the indentation between the top surface of the plunging jet and the splash that it creates (labeled Region I-A), the bursting of large bubbles that were entrapped under the plunging jet at impact, splashing and bubble bursting in the turbulent zone of the front face of the wave (combined with the large bursting bubbles in a region labeled I-B) and the bursting of small bubbles that reach the water surface at the crest of the nonbreaking wave following the breaker (Region II). The droplet diameter distributions for the entire droplet set for each breaker contain separate small- and large-diameter regions of power law behavior that cross at a diameter, $d_i$, which increases monotonically from 820 $\mu$m to 1480 $\mu$m from the weak to the strong breaker, respectively. Similar power law behavior is found in Regions I-A and I-B.