Prediction of surf-zone and open-ocean airborne sea-salt spatial distribution via computational fluid dynamics and statistical method

Abstract

The atmospheric corrosion of steel is a critical design and maintenance issue for structures such as electric transmission towers and bridges, which are generally widely dispersed. As airborne sea-salt particles are a major corrosion factor, the long-term cumulative spatial distributions of sea salt deposited on the structure surfaces are needed. In this study, we predict the long-term cumulative spatial distribution of sea-salt particles originating from the surf zone and from the open ocean, combining a computational fluid dynamics simulation and a statistical procedure. A new prediction method is introduced for sea-salt particle concentration originating from the surf zone and is validated based on comparisons with observed data. The predicted results indicate that surf-zone-originating particles increase remarkably the amount of airborne sea-salt particles near the coastline and can travel more than 5 km inland.