Aspect of oscillatory along-shelf flow in the vicinity of an isolated submarine canyon

Don L. Boyer (1) , A. N. Srdic (1) , Sergey A. Smirnov (1) , D. B. Haidvogel (2) , Joël Sommeria (3)

1 ASU - Arizona State University [Tempe]
2 Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences
3 LEGI - Laboratoire des Écoulements Géophysiques et Industriels [Grenoble]

Selected results are presented from a closely coupled laboratory-numerical model study of the oscillatory flow of a linearly stratified fluid in the vicinity of an isolated submarine canyon. It is shown that the boundary condition applied along the model floor in the numerical experiments is critically important in having the numerical model simulate the laboratory experiments. Furthermore, it is shown that enhanced viscosities, which assure the numerical stability, must be applied with care because they may change the flow fields. A scaling argument is advanced which predicts the strength of the time-mean flow generated by the background current.The sensitivity of the flow field to changes in some of the system parameters is discussed. Finally, some initial results for flows generated in the presence of boundary turbulence are also discussed.

Domaines: Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]; Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]

Don L. Boyer, A. N. Srdic, Sergey A. Smirnov, D. B. Haidvogel, Joël Sommeria. Aspect of oscillatory along-shelf flow in the vicinity of an isolated submarine canyon. Shallow flows, 2004, 9780429216510. ⟨10.1201/9780203027325⟩. ⟨hal-00261121⟩