Determination of the Aqueous Sublayer Thicknesses at an Air-Water Interface

Abstract

The thicknesses of the viscous and thermal sublayers in the water beneath an air-water interface are obtained by an application of the theory of rough-wall flows to results obtained in a laboratory wind, water-wave research facility. For fully rough flow the dimensionless viscous sublayer thickness δv+ is proportional to the square root of the roughness Reynolds number h+ based on mean roughness height, i.e., δv+ = 0.37h+frac12;. In addition, if Pr is the (molecular) Prandtl number, the dimensionless thermal sublayer thickness δt+ = 0.37h+?frac12;.