A Moving Surface Drag Model for LES of Wind over Waves

Abstract

Numerical prediction of the interactions between wind and ocean waves is essential for climate modeling and a wide range of offshore operations. Large Eddy Simulation (LES) of the marine atmospheric boundary layer is a practical numerical predictive tool but requires parameterization of surface fluxes at the air-water interface. Current momentum flux parameterizations primarily use wave-phase adapting computational grids, incurring high computational costs, or use an equilibrium model based on Monin-Obukhov similarity theory for rough surfaces that cannot resolve wave phase information. To include wave phase-resolving physics at a cost similar to the equilibrium model, the Moving Surface Drag (MOSD) model is introduced. It assumes ideal airflow over locally piece-wise planar representations of moving water wave surfaces. Horizontally unresolved interactions are still modeled using the equilibrium model. Validation against experimental and numerical datasets with known monochromatic waves demonstrates the robustness and accuracy of the model in representing wave-induced impacts on mean velocity and Reynolds stress profiles. The model is formulated to be applicable to a broad range of wave fields and its ability to represent cross-swell and multiple wavelength cases is illustrated. Additionally, the model is applied to LES of a laboratory-scale fixed-bottom offshore wind turbine model, and the results are compared with wind tunnel experimental data. The LES with the MOSD model shows good agreement in wind-wave-wake interactions and phase-dependent physics at a low computational cost. The model's simplicity and minimal computational needs make it valuable for studying turbulent atmospheric-scale flows over the sea, particularly in offshore wind energy research.