Experiment

The purpose of this experiment is to determine whether or not wind waves experience growth as the theoretical models suggest.  This experiment was conducted in the Water Science and Engineering Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

Equipment:

     Large Water Flume (65 cm water depth)

     Fan

     Anemometer

     Wave gages

     Computer for Data Collection

Methodology:

In conducting this experiment, I used two fan speed; a low speed corresponding to a wind speed of 8.9 mph (4.69 m/s), and a high speed corresponding to a wind speed of 10.5 mph (3.98 m/s).  For each speed, the fan was allowed to blow over the water surface or 30 seconds.  Using the computer and the wave gages, data was collected at frequency of 200 Hz.  Since I was limited to only being able to use two wave gages at a time, the experiment was repeated several times keeping the fan in a fixed position and moving the wave gages in order to collect wave height data at the 10 cm, 25 cm, 40 cm, 50 cm, 75 cm, and 100 cm distances from the fan.