71th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics (November 18, 2018 — November 20, 2018)

V0027: Birth of microbubbles in turbulent breaking waves

Authors

• Wai Hong Ronald Chan, Stanford University
• Shahab Mirjalili, Stanford University
• Suhas S Jain, Stanford University
• Javier Urzay, Stanford University
• Ali Mani, Stanford University
• Parviz Moin, Stanford University

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/APS.DFD.2018.GFM.V0027

Naturally-occurring and ship-generated breaking waves in the ocean generate bubbles of a wide range of sizes. Of these, the smallest microbubbles persist for a long time and have a long-lasting impact on the oceanic environment. In order to investigate the formation of these microbubbles, high-fidelity simulations of each of the stages in this formation are performed. These simulations lend credence to a model pathway for the birth of these microbubbles, involving processes such as collisions between interfaces and air film entrapment.