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Interference and transmission of spatiotemporally locally forced internal waves in non-uniform stratifications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2019

Rohit Supekar Open the ORCID record for Rohit Supekar [Opens in a new window]  and
Thomas Peacock
Rohit Supekar*
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
Thomas Peacock
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
*
†Email address for correspondence: srohit@mit.edu
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Abstract

Studies of the effects of constructive or destructive interference on the transmission of internal waves through non-uniform stratifications have typically been performed for internal wave fields that are spatiotemporally harmonic. To understand the impacts of spatiotemporal localization, we present a theoretical and experimental study of the transmission of two-dimensional internal waves that are generated by a boundary forcing that is localized in both space and time. The model analysis reveals that sufficient localization leads to the disappearance of transmission peaks and troughs that would otherwise be present for a harmonic forcing. The corresponding laboratory experiments that we perform provide clear demonstration of this effect. Based on the group velocity and angle of propagation of the internal waves, a practical criterion that assesses when the transmission peaks or troughs are evident is obtained.

JFM classification

Geophysical and Geological Flows: Geophysical and Geological Flows Geophysical and Geological Flows: Internal waves Geophysical and Geological Flows: Stratified flows
Type
JFM Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 866 , 10 May 2019 , pp. 350 - 368
Copyright
© 2019 Cambridge University Press 

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