Boundary streaming by internal waves

Antoine Renaud (1) , Antoine Venaille (1)

1 Phys-ENS - Laboratoire de Physique de l'ENS Lyon

Damped internal wave beams in stratified fluids have long been known to generate strong mean-flows through a mechanism analogous to acoustic streaming. While the role of viscous boundary layers in acoustic streaming has thoroughly been addressed, this remains largely unexplored in the case of internal waves. Here we compute the mean-flow generated close to an undulating wall that emits internal waves in a viscous, linearly stratified two-dimensional Boussinesq fluid. Using a quasi-linear approach, we show that the mean-flow behavior depends strongly on the boundary conditions, and find good agreement with numerical simulations. We apply these computations to an idealised model for the quasi-biennial oscillation, and find that the presence of boundary layers have a qualitative impact on the period of flow reversals within the domain bulk.

Mots clés: Internal wave; Wave bondary layer; Wave and current interaction; Internal Gravity Waves; Streaming; Boundary Layers

Domaines: Dynamique des Fluides [physics.flu-dyn]; Physique Atmosphérique et Océanique [physics.ao-ph]; Géophysique [physics.geo-ph]; Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]

Antoine Renaud, Antoine Venaille. Boundary streaming by internal waves. 2017. ⟨hal-01570794v4⟩