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Boundary mixing in a rotating, stratified fluid

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2006

G. N. Ivey
G. N. Ivey
Affiliation:
Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, GPO Box 4, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
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Abstract

An earlier laboratory experiment of Ivey & Corcos (1982) on boundary mixing in a stratified fluid was extended by including the effects of rotation. An axisymmetric version of the original laboratory experiments was constructed and a series of experiments conducted on a rotating table with the tank filled with salt-stratified solution. The combination of vertical mixing at the boundary and horizontal mixing by mesoscale eddies lead to the weakening of the interior density gradient. While the mechanisms were thus complex, the experiments demonstrated that the boundary-mixing process may be parameterized by a relatively simple formulation dependent upon the turbulence properties at the boundary and the tank dimensions.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 183 , October 1987 , pp. 25 - 44
Copyright
© 1987 Cambridge University Press

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