Soaring Interfaces, Vortices and Vortex Systems inside the Internal Waves Wake Past the Horizontally Moving Cylinder in a Continuously Stratified Fluid

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Chashechkin, Yu. D. | Mitkin, V. V.

Affiliations: Laboratory of Fluid Mechanics, Institute for Problems in Mechanics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 119526, prospect Vernadskogo 101/1, Moscow, Russia

Abstract: The flow pattern around a horizontal cylinder towed at constant velocity along isopycnic plane in a continuously stratified liquid is visualized by conventional techniques of "Vertical slit-Foucault's knife", "Maksoutov's slit-thread" and "horizontal slit-regular grating". Using sensitive high-resolution methods allows detail studying such component of stratified flow structures as soaring interfaces, singular soaring vortices and vortex systems, which arise directly inside the internal waves field past the cylinder. These flow elements having high level of vorticity are separated from the downstream wake by a strip of fluid without any small-scale inhomogeneities. Formation of singular vortex dipoles on leading edges of soaring interfaces is investigated in details in a wide range of flow parameters.

Keywords: Schlieren technique, Stratified fluid, Horizontal cylinder, Internal waves, Soaring interfaces, Vortex structures

Journal: Journal of Visualization, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 301-308, 2006