Experiments on Bubble and Droplet Production in Falling Jets and Breaking Waves

Abstract

The development of research and exploration in Arctic waters is very common nowadays. One of the environmental difficulties to carry out research in these regions is the icing of surfaces. After short periods of time, ice can form in thick layers on the surface of vessels, ships and oil platforms. The understanding and prediction of this phenomenon is important for the safety of the structures, ships and people that develop the research and exploration in polar regions. The icing depends on many parameters, but one of the most important is the generation of droplets by waves in the ocean, these droplets get colder when travelling with the wind and create ice layers when they are deposited on the surfaces. In the current work, I focus in understanding how do the waves disintegrate into smaller droplets? And how does the wave energy and wind speed affect the droplet generation? Using experimental techniques that can retrieve 3 dimensional positions and velocities of the droplets in time, I analyze the amount and size of droplets produced by breaking waves and waves impacting in obstacles, like a vertical wall. I also analyze the influence of wind in the droplet trajectories and their dynamics.