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Boundary layer dynamics and bottom friction in combined wave–current flows over large roughness elements

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2021

Xiao Yu*
Affiliation:
Engineering School of Sustainable Infrastructure & Environment, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
Johanna H. Rosman
Affiliation:
Institute of Marine Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Morehead City, NC 28557, USA
James L. Hench
Affiliation:
Marine Laboratory, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Beaufort, NC 28516, USA
*
Email address for correspondence: xiao.yu@essie.ufl.edu

Abstract

In the coastal ocean, interactions of waves and currents with large roughness elements, similar in size to wave orbital excursions, generate drag and dissipate energy. These boundary layer dynamics differ significantly from well-studied small-scale roughness. To address this problem, we derived spatially and phase-averaged momentum equations for combined wave–current flows over rough bottoms, including the canopy layer containing obstacles. These equations were decomposed into steady and oscillatory parts to investigate the effects of waves on currents, and currents on waves. We applied this framework to analyse large-eddy simulations of combined oscillatory and steady flows over hemisphere arrays (diameter $D$), in which current ($U_c$), wave velocity ($U_w$) and period ($T$) were varied. In the steady momentum budget, waves increase drag on the current, and this is balanced by the total stress at the canopy top. Dispersive stresses from oscillatory flow around obstacles are increasingly important as $U_w/U_c$ increases. In the oscillatory momentum budget, acceleration in the canopy is balanced by pressure gradient, added-mass and form drag forces; stress gradients are small compared to other terms. Form drag is increasingly important as the Keulegan–Carpenter number $KC=U_wT/D$ and $U_c/U_w$ increase. Decomposing the drag term illustrates that a quadratic relationship predicts the observed dependences of steady and oscillatory drag on $U_c/U_w$ and $KC$. For large roughness elements, bottom friction is well represented by a friction factor ($f_w$) defined using combined wave and current velocities in the canopy layer, which is proportional to drag coefficient and frontal area per unit plan area, and increases with $KC$ and $U_c/U_w$.

Information

Type
JFM Papers
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press
Figure 0

Figure 1. Schematic diagram showing the hemisphere array, simulation domain and boundary conditions.

Figure 1

Table 1. Summary of simulation parameters.

Figure 2

Figure 2. Example pressure and velocity fields from the LES at four different wave phases for: (ah)  a case with weak current and strong waves (case 4: $U_{c,H} = 0.14\ \textrm {m}\ \textrm {s}^{-1}$, $U_w = 0.3\ \textrm {m}\ \textrm {s}^{-1}$, $T = 20\ \textrm {s}$); and (ip)  a case with strong current and weak waves (case 7: $U_{c,H} = 0.30\ \textrm {m}\ \textrm {s}^{-1}$, $U_w = 0.1\ \textrm {m}/$, $T = 20\ \textrm {s}$). Colours are dynamic pressure $p_d/\rho$ normalized by mean-squared velocity and vectors are velocity fields. The $x$$z$ plane is located in the centre of the domain and the $x$$y$ plane is located at $z/D = 0.2$.

Figure 3

Figure 3. Phase- and spatially averaged (ad) velocity and (eh) dissipation rate profiles at four different wave phases for simulations with weak current and different wave velocity amplitudes and wave periods (cases 2–5). (ip)  Equivalent velocity and dissipation rate profiles for the strong current simulations (cases 7–10).

Figure 4

Figure 4. Drag parameter $C_D \alpha$ versus ratio of wave orbital velocity to current in the canopy layer ($U_w/U_{c}$) and Keulegan–Carpenter number ($KC$). In (a,b), red diamonds are simulations with strong current (cases 6–10), blue circles are simulations with weak current (cases 1–5), and black triangles are simulations with no current from Yu et al. (2018). In (c), diamonds are strong current cases, circles are weak current cases, and lines are contours of $C_D \alpha$; points and contours are coloured according to  $C_D \alpha$.

Figure 5

Figure 5. Drag force on a hemisphere as a function of wave phase for (a,c)  weak current cases 2–5 and (b,d)  strong current cases 7–10. (a,b) Drag force calculated from phase average of simulated pressure field, normalized using the mean-square spatially averaged velocity in the canopy layer. (c,d) Drag force predicted by a quadratic drag law and sinusoidal velocity in the canopy layer: $\mathcal {U}=U_{c}+U_w\sin {\omega t}$, where $U_{c}$, $U_w$ and $C_D\alpha$ were set to values from each simulation.

Figure 6

Figure 6. Time-averaged stress profiles. Three cases with different wave orbital amplitudes ($U_w = 0.1\ \textrm {m}\ \textrm {s}^{-1}$, $0.2\ \textrm {m}\ \textrm {s}^{-1}$, $0.3\ \textrm {m}\ \textrm {s}^{-1}$) and the same wave period ($T = 20\ \textrm {s}$) are shown for (a)  weak current (cases 2–4) and (b)  strong current (cases 7–9). Solid lines indicate turbulent stresses $\langle \overline {u'w'}\rangle _c$ and dashed lines indicate dispersive stresses $\langle \bar {u}'' \bar {w}'' \rangle _c$. Stresses are normalized by $\tau _c$, the force per unit horizontal area that must be exerted by the bottom on the fluid to balance the pressure gradient imposed to drive the current. The grey shaded region indicates the canopy layer.

Figure 7

Figure 7. Profiles of terms in the time- and spatially averaged momentum budget for (a)  weak current and strong waves (case 4: $U_w/U_{c} = 8.36$, $KC = 12$), and (b)  strong current and weak waves (case 7: $U_w/U_{c} = 0.70$, $KC = 4$). Momentum budget terms are normalized by $f_c$, the pressure gradient force imposed to drive the current. The grey shaded region indicates the canopy layer.

Figure 8

Figure 8. Normalized friction velocity, $u_*/U_{c}$, and zero-plane displacement, $d/D$, versus (a,c$KC$ and (b,d$U_w/U_{c}$. Red diamonds indicate simulations with weak current (cases 1–5) and blue circles indicate simulations with strong current (cases 6–10). Dotted lines in (b) are quadratic drag law predictions (4.7) with three different $C_D \alpha$ values.

Figure 9

Figure 9. Dispersive stress components versus wave phase and height above bottom for (ae)  weak current and strong waves (case 4), and (fj)  strong current and weak waves (case 7). Columns are (a,f)  total oscillatory dispersive stress and (bd,g-i) oscillatory dispersive stress components, which sum to (a,f). The time-averaged (steady) dispersive stress is shown in (e,j) for comparison. Stresses are non-dimensionalized by $U_w \omega D$ to indicate their size relative to the pressure gradient force driving the oscillatory flow within the canopy layer. Dashed lines indicate the top of the canopy layer.

Figure 10

Figure 10. Momentum budget for waves, plotted as the difference between the momentum budget in the canopy layer and the momentum budget in the free stream. Momentum budget terms are shown versus phase and height above bottom for (ae)  weak current and strong waves (case 4), and (fj)  strong current and weak waves (case 7). Force terms in panels (be,hj) sum to acceleration terms in panels (a,f). All terms are non-dimensionalized by $U_w \omega$ to indicate their size relative to the pressure gradient force driving the oscillatory flow. Dashed lines indicate the top of the canopy layer.

Figure 11

Figure 11. Oscillatory momentum budget for cases with (a) $KC = 4$ and (b) $KC = 12$, presented as the difference between canopy layer and free-stream momentum budgets (4.10). Values plotted are r.m.s. momentum budget terms normalized by $U_w \omega$ to indicate their size relative to the pressure gradient driving the oscillatory flow. Magenta dotted lines are quadratic drag law predictions for different $C_D \alpha$ values.

Figure 12

Figure 12. Effective Keulegan–Carpenter numbers, representing flow excursion in the forward (with current) and reverse (against current) directions relative to hemisphere diameter. Effective Keulegan–Carpenter numbers are normalized by $KC$ for the same wave conditions in the absence of current.

Figure 13

Figure 13. Friction factors ($f_w$) versus the ratio of wave orbital excursion amplitude ($\zeta$) to roughness length ($k_s$). Values of $f_w$ from this study (triangles) were calculated from the r.m.s. drag force per unit horizontal area and $k_s$ was set to the hemisphere diameter $D$. Also shown are $f_w$ values from previous simulations with waves only (Yu et al.2018); diamonds are values computed from the r.m.s. drag force and circles are values computed from the r.m.s. total force, which includes both drag and inertial forces. Black symbols are previous laboratory measurements and lines are previously proposed curves based on wave–current boundary layer theory (Grant & Madsen 1979) and empirical fits (Nielsen 1992). The grey shaded area indicates the parameter range where the wave boundary layer height would be smaller than the height of roughness elements.