Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T01:35:42.183Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Wind action on water standing in a laboratory channel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2006

G. M. Hidy  and
E. J. Plate
G. M. Hidy
Affiliation:
National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
E. J. Plate
Affiliation:
Fluid Dynamics and Diffusion Laboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The development of waves and currents resulting from the action of a steady wind on initially standing water has been investigated in a wind–water tunnel. The mean air flow near the water surface, the properties of wind waves, and the drift currents were measured as they evolved with increasing fetch, depth and mean wind speed. The results suggest how the stress on the water surface changes with an increasingly wavy surface, and, from a different viewpoint, how the drift current and the waves develop in relation to the friction velocity of the air. The amplitude spectra calculated for the wavy surface reflected certain features characteristic of an equilibrium configuration, especially in the higher frequencies. The observed equilibrium range in the high frequencies of the spectra fits the f−5 rule satisfactorily up to frequencies f of about 15 c/s. The wave spectra also revealed how the waves grow in the channel, both with time at a fixed point, and with distance from the leading edge of the water. These results are discussed in the light of recent theories for wave generation resulting from the action of pressure fluctuations in the air, and from shearing flow instabilities near the wavy surface. The experimental observations agree reasonably well with the predictions of the recent theory proposed by Miles, using growth rates calculated for the mechanism suggesting energy transfer to the water through the viscous layer in the air near the water surface.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 26 , Issue 4 , December 1966 , pp. 651 - 687
Copyright
© 1966 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abdullah, A. J. 1949 Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 51, 42.
Benjamin, T. B. 1959 J. Fluid Mech. 6, 16.
Blackman, R. B. & Tukey, J. W. 1958 The Measurement of Power Spectra. New York Dover.
Burns, J. C. 1953 Camb. Phil. Soc. 49, 695.
Charnock, H. 1955 Q. J. Roy. Met. Soc. 81, 63.
Fitzgerald, L. M. 1963 Aust. J. Phys. 16, 47.
Francis, J. R. D. 1951 Proc. R. Soc., A 206, 387.
Goodwin, C. R. 1965 The effect of wind drag on open-channel flow. Unpublished M.S. thesis, Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, Colorado.
Hicks, B. L. 1963 Ocean Wave Spectra. Englewood Cliffs. N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
Hidy, G. M. & Plate, E. J. 1965a Laboratory studies of wind action on water standing in a channel. ESSA (USWB) TN, no. 9-SAIL-1, pp. 285–321.Google Scholar
Hidy, G. M. & Plate, E. J. 1965b Phys. Fluids 8, 138.
Hunt, J. N. 1952 Houille Blanche 7, 38.
Hunt, J. N. 1955 Proc. R. Soc., A 231, 496.
Keulegan, G. H. 1951 Res. Nat. Bur. Stand. 46, 35.
Kunishi, H. 1963 Bull. Disaster Prev. Res. Inst. no. 61, Disaster Prev. Res. Inst., Kyoto, Japan.
Lamb, H. 1932 Hydrodynamics. New York: Dover.
Lock, R. C. 1951 Q. J. Mech. Appl. Math. 4, 4.
Masch, F. 1963 Int. J. Water Air Poll. 7, 69.
Miles, J. W. 1957 J. Fluid Mech. 3, 18.
Miles, J. W. 1959 J. Fluid Mech. 6, 58.
Miles, J. W. 1960 J. Fluid Mech. 7, 46.
Miles, J. W. 1962a J. Fluid Mech. 13, 43.
Miles, J. W. 1962b J. Fluid Mech. 13, 42.
Phillips, O. M. 1957 J. Fluid Mech. 2, 41.
Phillips, O. M. 1958a J. Fluid Mech. 4, 42.
Phillips, O. M. 1958b J. Mar. Res. 16, 22.
Phillips, O. M. 1958c Wave generation by a turbulent wind over a finite fetch. Proc. 3rd U.S. Congr. Appl. Mech. pp. 785–789.Google Scholar
Phillips, O. M. 1961 J. Geophys. Res. 66, 288.
Phillips, O. M. & Katz, E. 1961 J. Mar. Res. 19, 5.
Plate, E. J. 1965 La Houille Blanche 6, 59.
Plate, E. J. & Goodwin, C. 1965 The influence of wind on open channel flow. Proc. of A.S.C.E. Conf. on Coastal Engr., Santa Barbara, California.Google Scholar
Schlichting, H. 1960 Boundary Layer Theory, 4th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Thompson, P. D. 1949 Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 51, 46.
Wiegel, R. L. 1961 Proc. 7th Conf. on Coastal Engr. Council of Wave Research, Engr. Foundation, Berkeley, California.
Ursell, F. 1956 Surveys in Mechanics. Cambridge University Press.