Sea surface drag and the role of spray

Turbulent Couette flow is used for this purpose since the momentum flux profile is constant across the domain height; a characteristic similar to the constant-flux layer in the atmospheric surface layer.

The simulations show that when inertial particles are introduced into a turbulent flow, they carry a portion of the total vertical momentum flux, and that this contribution can be significant when the particle concentration is sufficiently large. The numerical setup is also used to evaluate a dispersed phase model that treats spray effects as equivalent to an increase in stable atmospheric stratification. Our simulations suggest that in the range of droplet sizes typically found near the air-sea interface, particle inertial effects dominate any particle-induced stratification effects.