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Rotating flows along indented coastlines

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2006

Josef Chernia Wsky  and
Paul H. Leblond
Josef Chernia Wsky
Affiliation:
Department of Oceanography, University of British Columbia, 6270 University Boulevard, Vancouver, B.C., Canada V6T 1W5 Present address: G.A.Borstad Associates, 10474 Resthaven Drive, Sidney, B.C., Canada V8L 3H7.
Paul H. Leblond
Affiliation:
Department of Oceanography, University of British Columbia, 6270 University Boulevard, Vancouver, B.C., Canada V6T 1W5
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Abstract

We examine the problem of a steady, inviscid, reduced-gravity rotating flow in a wedge around a sharp corner. Solutions to nonlinear equations are obtained via a power-series expansion in a Rossby number, diffraction theory and Green's function method. The wedge of an angle $\frac{3}{2}\pi $ is used, as an example, to show details of the solution. The results exhibit the relative importance of the pressure gradient, centrifugal and Coriolis forces. For re-entrant corners, a centrifugal upwelling of the interface occurs very close to the apex and, hence, is not important if coastal radii of curvature are comparable to, or larger than, the Rossby radius; the flow is also supercritical within an arc, whose size depends upon the Rossby number and the angle of the wedge. Using two or more corner solutions, plausible flow streamlines can be generated in more complicated domains, as long as no two corners are closer than the Rossby radius of deformation. This procedure is illustrated with two examples: (i) circulation in a channel mouth; and (ii) flow around a square bump in a coastline.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 169 , August 1986 , pp. 379 - 407
Copyright
© 1986 Cambridge University Press

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