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Damping mechanisms of internal waves in continuously stratified rotating basins

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 September 2009

K. SHIMIZU  and
J. IMBERGER
K. SHIMIZU*
Affiliation:
Centre for Water Research, University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
J. IMBERGER
Affiliation:
Centre for Water Research, University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
*
†Email address for correspondence: shimizu@cwr.uwa.edu.au
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Abstract

Damping mechanisms, damping rates and the dissipative modal structure of internal waves in stratified rotating circular basins are investigated analytically. The damping is shown to be due to a combination of the internal-wave cancelling, where waves emitted by the oscillatory boundary layers destructively interact with the parent wave and drain energy from it, and spin-down modified by the periodicity, where the energy is drained by the sinks and sources at the bottom corner caused by a discontinuity in the Ekman transport. It is shown that super-inertial Poincaré waves and sub-inertial Kelvin waves are damped predominantly by the internal-wave cancelling and modified spin-down, respectively. These processes also modify the internal-wave structure; for super-inertial waves, the boundary-layer-generated waves intensify the interior flow in the lower part of the water column and delay the phase relative to the isopycnal displacements, but for sub-inertial waves, the Ekman pumping and the corner sinks and sources add a horizontal circular flow that slants the crest and trough backwards near the wall.

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Papers
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Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 637 , 25 October 2009 , pp. 137 - 172
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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References

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