Speed and Acceleration of Droplets Generated by Breaking Wind?Forced Waves

Laboratory measurements of droplet size, velocity, and accelerations generated by mechanically wind-forced water breaking waves are reported. The wind free stream velocity is up to 12 m/s, leading wave slopes from 0.15 0.35 at a fetch 23 m. ratio phase speed ranges 5.9 11.1, depending on the mechanical frequency. size distribution in all configurations can be represented two power laws, N(d) ? d?1 for drops 30 600 ?m d?4 above ?m. horizontal vertical velocities appear correlated, with slower more likely move upward. acceleration distributions found asymmetric, probability density functions (PDFs) being described normal-inverse-Gaussian distribution. PDF follow shape close one predicted small particles homogeneous isotropic turbulence, while follows an asymmetric normal shape, showing that both components controlled different physical processes.