Efficiency of Mixing in Thin Stratified Layers

Oregon State University, Corvallis OR

Investigators

Abstract

0221057 Smyth A sequence of direct numerical simulation (DNS) experiments designed to extend earlier two-dimensional results to more general ocean flows will be performed. Turbulence evolution will be simulated in a variety of initial flows in which density changes in thin layers (compared with velocity) and oscillatory instability results. The physics of turbulence will be studied in detail, and turbulence statistics will be compared with DNS of Kelvin-Hemholtz billows, with laboratory experiments on Holmboe waves, and with turbulent events observed in the ocean as has been done for Kelvin-Helmholtz waves. Besides adding directly to the knowledge of oscillatory instabilities in the ocean, diagnostics that will permit the identification of instability classes (e.g. Kelvin-Helmholtz or Holmboe) more clearly in future observational studies will be defined.