Wave-induced vortex recoil and nonlinear refraction
| Autor: | Humbert, T., Aumaître, S., Gallet, B. |
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| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Phys. Rev. Fluids 2 (2017) 094701 |
| Druh dokumentu: | Working Paper |
| DOI: | 10.1103/PhysRevFluids.2.094701 |
| Popis: | When a vortex refracts surface waves, the momentum flux carried by the waves changes direction and the waves induce a reaction force on the vortex. We study experimentally the resulting vortex distortion. Incoming surface gravity waves impinge on a steady vortex of velocity $U_0$ driven magneto-hydrodynamically at the bottom of a fluid layer. The waves induce a shift of the vortex center in the direction transverse to wave propagation, together with a decrease in surface vorticity. We interpret these two phenomena in the framework introduced by Craik and Leibovich (1976): we identify the dimensionless Stokes drift $S=U_s/U_0$ as the relevant control parameter, $U_s$ being the Stokes drift velocity of the waves. We propose a simple vortex line model which indicates that the shift of the vortex center originates from a balance between vorticity advection by the Stokes drift and self-advection of the vortex. The decrease in surface vorticity is interpreted as a consequence of vorticity expulsion by the fast Stokes drift, which confines it at depth. This purely hydrodynamic process is analogous to the magnetohydrodynamic expulsion of magnetic field by a rapidly moving conductor through the electromagnetic skin effect. We study vorticity expulsion in the limit of fast Stokes drift and deduce that the surface vorticity decreases as $1/S$, a prediction which is compatible with the experimental data. Such wave-induced vortex distortions have important consequences for the nonlinear regime of wave refraction: the refraction angle rapidly decreases with wave intensity. Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures |
| Databáze: | arXiv |
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