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The decay of transients in a contained stratified fluid

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2006

L. M. Hocking
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1

Abstract

Stably stratified viscous fluid in a container with vertical walls is initially at rest with tilted density surfaces, following a rotation of the container from its orientation when being filled. The initial state so generated is not in equilibrium, and the resultant motion will decay under the action of viscosity and of the diffusion of the salt producing the stratification. The timescales for the succession of stages by which equilibrium is attained are identified, and are found to depend on the strengths of the two diffusive processes, separately and interactively.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1985 Cambridge University Press

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References

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