Investigation of the Influence of Non-breaking Wind Waves on Turbulence in the Laboratory Modeling

This article investigates the generation and development of near-surface turbulence in wind-driven non-breaking waves. Using the Optical Flow method, instantaneous underwater current characteristics are obtained, averaged over several realizations for each wave phase, and phase-averaged profiles of the root-mean-square fluctuations of horizontal and vertical velocities, as well as the Reynolds stress, are obtained. These results are compared with numerical modeling data and the results of the PIV method. The phase distribution of underwater current fluctuations obtained in the numerical modeling is experimentally confirmed. A significant increase in the level of fluctuations is demonstrated during the passage of non-breaking waves in a field of weak turbulence caused by fluid drift motions.