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Trapped modes of internal waves in a channel spanned by a submerged cylinder
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 April 2006
Abstract
A horizontal channel of infinite length and depth and of constant width contains inviscid, incompressible, two-layer fluid under gravity. The upper layer has constant finite depth and is occupied by a fluid of constant density ρ*. The lower layer has infinite depth and is occupied by a fluid of constant density ρ > ρ*. The parameter ε = (ρ/ρ*)–1 is assumed to be small. The lower fluid is bounded internally by an immersed horizontal cylinder which extends right across the channel and has its generators normal to the sidewalls. The free, time-harmonic oscillations of fluid, which have finite kinetic and potential energy (such oscillations are called trapped modes), are investigated. Trapped modes in homogeneous fluid above submerged cylinders and other obstacles are well known. In the present paper it is shown that there are two sets of frequencies of trapped modes for the two-layer fluid. The frequencies of the first finite set are close to the frequencies of trapped modes in the homogeneous fluid (when ρ* = ρ). They correspond to the trapped modes of waves on the free surface of the upper fluid. The frequencies of the second finite set are proportional to ε, and hence, are small. These latter frequencies correspond to the trapped modes of internal waves on the interface between two fluids. To obtain these results the perturbation method for a quadratic operator family was applied. The quadratic operator family with bounded, symmetric, linear, integral operators in the space L2(−∞, +∞) arises as a result of two reductions of the original problem. The first reduction allows to consider the potential in the lower fluid only. The second reduction is the same as used by Ursell (1987).
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- © 1993 Cambridge University Press
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