Modeling Surf-Generated Sea Spray Aerosol Plume to Assess Nearshore Materials Corrosion Risk

Abstract Salt-laden sea spray aerosol deposition enables the electrochemical degradation of materials by atmospheric corrosion. White-capping, bubble bursting, and surf crashing of waves near shore can emit sea spray aerosol plumes. Understanding the characteristics of the surf-generated nearshore sea spray aerosol plumes may help better understand atmospheric corrosion adjacent to a coastline. However, there is a lack of experiments and in-depth modeling of sea spray aerosol plumes. The titled plume model can help predict the transport and deposition of sea spray aerosols within the plume. The ambient wind speed, initial plume height, initial size and number distribution within the plume, and size-dependent deposition rates are used as inputs. Data from controlled wave pool experiments were used to bound model assumption and approximations regarding the initial plume parameters. Characteristic shore wind speed and direction data were also used as inputs. Initial developments assume some simplified plume profile divided into homogenous air parcel bins. Refined developments incorporate particle size and number distributions for sea spray aerosols and the size-dependent deposition velocity calculated using analytical equations. A real time visualization in MATLAB was constructed to assess and communicate the characteristics of the sea spray aerosol plume.