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Salt fingers at low Rayleigh numbers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2002

R. KRISHNAMURTI ,
Y.-H. JO  and
A. STOCCHINO
R. KRISHNAMURTI
Affiliation:
Department of Oceanography and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Institute, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA
Y.-H. JO
Affiliation:
Department of Oceanography and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Institute, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA Present address: University of Delaware.
A. STOCCHINO
Affiliation:
Department of Oceanography and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Institute, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA
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Abstract

This is a laboratory study of salt fingers at low Rayleigh numbers. We report on the stability boundary in the (RS, RT)-plane (where RS and RT are the salt and heat Rayleigh numbers respectively), the wavenumber of the observed fingers, and the planform. In this low RS, RT range, fingers have width comparable to their height, as predicted by linear stability theory. The planform appears to be close-packed polygonal cells when they are formed on curved profiles of temperature and salinity. However, the planform is distinctly rolls when care is taken to approximate linear profiles.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 452 , 10 February 2002 , pp. 25 - 37
Copyright
© 2002 Cambridge University Press

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