We present a model for the dispersal of protoplanetary disks by winds from either the central star or the inner disk .
These winds obliquely strike the flaring disk surface and strip away disk material by entraining it in an outward radial-moving flow at the wind-disk interface which lies several disk scale heights above the mid-plane .
The disk dispersal time depends on the entrainment velocity , v _ { d } = \epsilon c _ { s } , at which disk material flows into this turbulent shear layer interface , where \epsilon is a scale factor and c _ { s } is the local sound speed in the disk surface just below the entrainment layer .
If \epsilon \sim 0.1 , a likely upper limit , the dispersal time at 1 AU is \sim 6 Myr for a disk with a surface density of 10 ^ { 3 } g cm ^ { -2 } , a solar mass central star , and a wind with an outflow rate \dot { M } _ { w } = 10 ^ { -8 } \mbox { M } _ { \odot } \mbox { yr } ^ { -1 } and terminal velocity v _ { w } = 200 \mbox { km s } ^ { -1 } .
When compared to photoevaporation and viscous evolution , wind stripping can be a dominant mechanism only for the combination of low accretion rates ( \lesssim 10 ^ { -8 } M _ { \odot } yr ^ { -1 } ) and wind outflow rates approaching these accretion rates .
This case is unusual since generally outflow rates are \lesssim 0.1 of accretion rates .