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A turbulent patch arising from a breaking internal wave

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 April 2011

SERGEY N. YAKOVENKO ,
T. GLYN THOMAS  and
IAN P. CASTRO
SERGEY N. YAKOVENKO
Affiliation:
Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk 630090, Russia School of Engineering Sciences, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK
T. GLYN THOMAS
Affiliation:
School of Engineering Sciences, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK
IAN P. CASTRO*
Affiliation:
School of Engineering Sciences, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK
*
†Email address for correspondence: i.castro@soton.ac.uk
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Abstract

Results of direct numerical simulations of the development of a breaking internal gravity wave are presented. The wave was forced by the imposition of an appropriate bottom boundary shape (a two-dimensional cosine hill) within a density-stratified domain having a uniform upstream velocity and density gradient. The focus is on turbulence generation and maintenance within the turbulent patch generated by the wave breaking. Pathlines, density contours, temporal and spatial spectra, and second moments of the velocity and density fluctuations and turbulent kinetic energy balance terms obtained from the data averaged over the span in the mixed zone are all used in the analysis of the flow. Typical Reynolds numbers, based on the vertical scale of the breaking region and the upstream velocity, were around 6000 and the fully resolved computations yielded sufficient resolution to capture the fine-scale transition processes as well as the subsequent fully developed turbulence. It is shown that globally, within the turbulent patch, there is an approximate balance in the production, dissipation and transport processes for turbulent kinetic energy, so that the patch remains quasi-steady over a significant time. Although it is far from being axially homogeneous, with turbulence generation occurring largely near the upstream bottom part of the patch where the mean velocity shear is particularly large, it has features not dissimilar to those of a classical turbulent wake.

JFM classification

Geophysical and Geological Flows: Atmospheric flows Geophysical and Geological Flows: Internal waves Turbulent Flows: Turbulence simulation
Type
Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 677 , 25 June 2011 , pp. 103 - 133
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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