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Turbulent mixing of two-layer stratified fluid

Phys. Fluids 19, 125104 (2007); doi:10.1063/1.2821913

Published 19 December 2007

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J. A. Whitehead
Department of Physical Oceanography, MS#21, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543, USA

Ian Stevenson
Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, Northwestern University, Searle Building 5-474, 320 East Chicago Ave., Chicago, Illinois 60611-3010, USA
A two-layer salt-stratified tank of water was mixed by turbulence generated by many excursions of a horizontally moving vertical rod. The objective is to observe the time-dependent response of the mean density field for ranges of Richardson number Ri>0.9 and Reynolds Number Re>600. As the density profile of the fluid gradually evolves from a single step to a mixed state over a wide range of time, there is an almost perfect collapse of all the profiles to one universal profile as a function of a similarity variable. Although the turbulent diffusion is not constant, the value in the limit of small stratification has similar magnitude to values found by others. ©2007 American Institute of Physics
History: Received 17 May 2007; accepted 14 November 2007; published 19 December 2007
Permalink: http://link.aip.org/link/?PHFLE6/19/125104/1
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1070-6631 (print)   1089-7666 (online)
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