An application of the E-ε turbulence model for studying coupled air-sea boundary-layer structure

An E- epsilon turbulence model is used to study air-sea interaction characteristics and turbulence structure using a coupled model for air-sea boundary layers. The E- epsilon turbulence model consists of equations for the turbulent kinetic energy, the energy-dissipation, and for the turbulent exchange coefficient expressed in terms of turbulent kinetic energy and energy-dissipation. The energy-dissipation equations for the air-sea interface are solved analytically to obtain boundary conditions for energy-dissipation at the interface. The air-sea interaction and turbulence characteristics of the E- epsilon model are compared with those of the mixing-length model and with available observations. The simulations demonstrate that the air-sea interaction parameters obtained by the E- epsilon model agree well with observations. The numerical studies also show that the E- epsilon turbulence model with appropriate constants can give good results in modeling coupled air-sea boundary-layer flows.