Measurements of inertial wave packets propagating within steady rotating turbulence. (21st February 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Salhov, Alon; Yarom, Ehud; Sharon, Eran
• Is Part Of: Europhysics letters. Volume 125:Number 2(2019)
• Publication Date: 2019-02-21
• Subjects: 47.27.-i -- 47.32.Ef; Physics -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; 530.05
• DOI: 10.1209/0295-5075/125/24003
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0295-5075

Abstract

Abstract: We measure and quantify the spatial transport of energy within steady rotating hydrodynamic turbulence. A steady turbulent field in a rotating tank is perturbed by a short and abrupt increase of energy injection at a well-defined plane. Initially, a wave packet of inertial modes is generated within the background turbulent field, propagating according to the dispersion relation of inertial waves, much like wave propagation within a static fluid. At this stage, the background turbulence is only weakly affected by the pulse passage. Only at longer times, which are determined by the pulse initial amplitude and spectrum, energy is efficiently transferred from the wave packet to the background flow. The energy, which is physically injected at the bottom of the tank, is, therefore, effectively injected at a higher plane. The height of maximum energy transfer efficiency is estimated and varied via manipulations of experimental parameters.