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Laboratory observations of mean flows under surface gravity waves

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2007

S. G. MONISMITH ,
E. A. COWEN ,
H. M. NEPF ,
J. MAGNAUDET  and
L. THAIS
S. G. MONISMITH
Affiliation:
Environmental Fluid Mechanics Laboratory, Stanford University Stanford, CA 94305-4020, USA Institut de Mécanique des Fluides de Toulouse, UMR-CNRS-INPT-UPS 5502, Toulouse 31400, France
E. A. COWEN
Affiliation:
Department of Civil andEnvironmental Engineering Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
H. M. NEPF
Affiliation:
Parsons Laboratory, MIT, Cambridge MA 02139, USA
J. MAGNAUDET
Affiliation:
Institut de Mécanique des Fluides de Toulouse, UMR-CNRS-INPT-UPS 5502, Toulouse 31400, France
L. THAIS
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Mécanique de Lille, UMR-CNRS 8107, Polytech'Lille, Université de Lille I, Villeneuve D'Ascq, Cedex 59655, France
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Abstract

In this paper we present mean velocity distributions measured in several different wave flumes. The flows shown involve different types of mechanical wavemakers, channels of differing sizes, and two different end conditions. In all cases, when surface waves, nominally deep-water Stokes waves, are generated, counterflowing Eulerian flows appear that act to cancel locally, i.e. not in an integral sense, the mass transport associated with the Stokes drift. No existing theory of wave–current interactions explains this behaviour, although it is symptomatic of Gerstner waves, rotational waves that are exact solutions to the Euler equations. In shallow water (kH ≈ 1), this cancellation of the Stokes drift does not hold, suggesting that interactions between wave motions and the bottom boundary layer may also come into play.

Type
Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 573 , February 2007 , pp. 131 - 147
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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