GENERATION OF COHERENT VORTEX STRUCTURE IN LATE WAKE DOWNSTREAM OF A SPHERE IN WEAKLY STRATIFIED FLUID

초록

Wake downstream of an object in the stratified flow has been of long-standing interest in fluid dynamics because of its similarity to geophysical flow over topographical terrains and more recently, concerns about the wake left behind a body moving through the ocean thermocline. Decades of studies of geophysical flow have unveiled that the flow downstream of obstacles in stratified flow consists of attached wake and strong internal waves, or separated, fluctuating wake and persistent late wakes, all of which depend on the flow conditions. Among unique and interesting characteristics of the stratified flow past obstacles is the generation of coherent vortex structure in the late wake far downstream of the object. Without the density stratification, the flow field downstream becomes undisturbed after relatively fast diminishing of the near wake. However, no matter how small the stratification is, the flow field downstream self-develops coherent vortex structures even after diminishing of the near wake. This paper present a computational approach to simulate the generation of the coherent vortex structure in late wake of a moving sphere submerged in weakly stratified fluid. The results are in consistent with several experimental observations and the vortex stretching mechanism is employed to explain the process of coherence.