Open AccessWIND VELOCITY PROFILE ABOVE PROGRESSIVE WATER WAVES
Author(s) -
O. H. Shemdin
Publication year - 1968
Publication title -
proceedings of conference on coastal engineering/proceedings of ... conference on coastal engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2156-1028
pISSN - 0589-087X
DOI - 10.9753/icce.v11.5
Subject(s) - amplitude , wave shoaling , perturbation (astronomy) , mechanics , surface wave , physics , group velocity , wave propagation , mechanical wave , longitudinal wave , optics , acoustics , computational physics , quantum mechanics
An investigation of the air velocity profile above progressive, mechanically-generated waves was made m the wind and wave facility at Stanford University. The influence of propagating waves on the mean velocity profile was sought especially. Both the instantaneous and mean velocity profiles were obtained with the use of high response total head and static pressure probes, m conjunction with a wave height gage. Experimental evidence is presented which suggests that the air velocity field responds to the wave motion. The dependence of the mean velocity profile on wave frequency was investigated experimentally over mechanically generated waves having a constant amplitude. Also, the dependence of the mean velocity profile on wave amplitude was investigated over mechanically generated waves with a specified frequency. The theoretical results suggest that the wave influence is threefold. The first is due to the fact that a velocity-measuring instrument continuously shifts streamlines when measuring the air velocity above a perturbed water surface. The second is due to the wave-induced perturbation in the air velocity. The third is due to the interaction between the two effects just described. The results contribute towards explaining the lack of consistency in the existing data.