Dataset for: Simulation of vertical dispersion of oil droplets by Langmuir supercells through a Reynolds-averaged Eulerian formulation combined with Lagrangian particle tracking

Interaction between the wind-driven shear and the wave-induced Stokes drift in the upper ocean leads to Langmuir circulation consisting of wind-aligned counter-rotating vortices. In inner-shelf regions up to 30 meters in depth undergoing strong wind and wave forcing during the passage of storms, Langmuir cells have been observed reaching the bottom of the water column while increasing in intensity and coherency (Gargett and Wells, 2007; Gargett and Savidge, 2020). These cells have been denoted as Langmuir supercells (LS) due to their significant impact on the turbulence dynamics throughout the entire water column and their distinct structure compared to ordinary Langmuir circulation in the upper ocean mixed layer. A Reynolds-averaged Eulerian formulation is developed resolving LS as a secondary component to the wind-driven mean shear current, and this formulation is combined with Lagrangian particle tracking to investigate oil droplet entrainment induced by the LS. The efficiency of the cells in mixing oil droplets of 500 microns throughout the water column is compared to wind-driven flow with 0.025 and 0.1 N/m^-2 forces. Characteristic timescales of the initial accumulation of oil droplets in submerged Stommel retention zones and the subsequent homogenization of the droplets about these zones are established. The dataset includes modeled particle trajectories for cases with a Langmuir number of 0.7 and wavelength to depth ratios of 4/3 and 6 and a y-z slice of the velocity field at x position 0.785398 at the final step of the model run. Also included are particle trajectory animations for wavelength/depth = 6, Langmuir number 0.5, and two different wind regimes. This dataset supports the publication: Perez, Anthony J., Fangda Cui, Juan Peñaloza-Gutierrez, Seyed Zeidi, Nityanand Sinha, Michel Boufadel, Carlowen A. Smith, David W. Murphy, and Andrés E. Tejada-Martínez. (2021). Simulation of vertical dispersion of oil droplets by Langmuir supercells through a Reynolds-averaged Eulerian formulation combined with Lagrangian particle tracking. Ocean Engineering, 235, 109043. doi:10.1016/j.oceaneng.2021.109043.