Internal and inertia-gravity wave focusing at large Stokes numbers

Abstract

Experiments with an oscillating torus in a stratified and/or rotating fluid on the 13 m-diameter Coriolis platform show that, at such large Stokes number, geometrically focusing internal waves compare to some extent with the presented linear theory, but exhibit surprising results in the nonlinear regime: though the waves are very nonlinear with wave triads and increasing energy in the higher harmonics, they do not overturn, and wave breaking is not observed.