Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-fwgfc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-11T23:07:48.998Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Blocking an inviscid shear flow

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2006

Melvin E. Stern
Melvin E. Stern
Affiliation:
Department of Oceanography, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The upstream influence in an inviscid two-dimensional shear flow around a semicircular ‘cape’ (radius A) is computed using a piecewise uniform vorticity model of a boundary-layer current. The area of this layer upstream from the cape increases as the square root of time t when A is small, and increases as t for larger A. Complete blocking occurs when A is approximately three times the boundary-layer thickness, in which case all oncoming particles accumulate in a large upstream vortex. The numerical results obtained from the contour dynamical method also show the generation of large eddies downstream from the obstacle.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 227 , June 1991 , pp. 449 - 472
Copyright
© 1991 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Dritchel, D. G. 1988 The repeated filamentation of vorticity interfaces. J. Fluid Mech. 191, 511–517.Google Scholar
Gill, A. E. 1977 The hydraulics of rotating channel flow. J. Fluid Mech. 80, 641–671.Google Scholar
Higdon, J. J. L. 1985 Stokes flow in arbitrary two-dimensional domains. J. Fluid Mech. 159, 195–226.Google Scholar
Hughes, R. L. 1986 On the conjugate behavior of weak along-shore flows. Tellus 38 A, 277–284.Google Scholar
Hughes, R. L. 1987 The role of higher shelf modes in coastal hydraulics. J. Mar. Res. 45, 33–58.Google Scholar
Pratt, L. J. & Armi, L. 1987 Hydraulic control of flows with nonuniform potential vorticity. J. Phys. Oceanogr. 17, 2016–2029.Google Scholar
Schlichting, H. 1968 Boundary Layer Theory. McGraw Hill.
Stern, M. E. 1972 Hydraulically critical rotating flow. Phys. Fluids 15, 2062–2064.Google Scholar
Stern, M. E. 1975 Ocean Circulation Physics. Academic.
Stern, M. E. & Paldor, N. 1983 Large amplitude long waves in a shear flow. Phys. Fluids 26, 906–919.Google Scholar
Stern, M. E. & Pratt, L. J. 1985 Dynamics of vorticity fronts. J. Fluid Mech. 161, 513.Google Scholar
Stern, M. E. & Whitehead, J. 1990 Separation of a boundary jet in a rotating fluid. J. Fluid Mech. 217, 41–69.Google Scholar
Turner, J. S. 1973 Buoyancy Effects in Fluids. Cambridge University Press.
Whitehead, J. A., Leetma, A. & Knox, R. A. 1974 Rotating hydraulics of strait and sill flows. Geophys. Fluid Dyn. 6, 101–125.Google Scholar