Transient internal waves produced by a moving body in a tank of density-stratified fluid

Abstract

The internal waves produced by a moving body are generally longer in the direction of motion than the corresponding surface waves. This difference is accentuated when the density variation is slight and the body velocity is large in which case a very long towing tank may be required for the simulation of a steady-state condition. The following theoretical study of transient waves is intended as a step in relating test conditions and requisite towing-tank sizes.A source–sink pair travelling for a finite time is used to represent the restricted motion of a body in a tank. The approximate length and volume of the body are fixed, but its precise shape (somewhat irregular and slightly time dependent) is assumed to be of secondary importance and is not calculated here. The density-stratified fluid is assumed to have a constant Brunt–Väisälä frequency.A solution in the form of a triple sum over the tank eigenfunctions applies quite generally for the internal wave system (neglecting surface waves and the potential-flow-type solution near the body). Examples covering the large-scale structure of the flow field have been solved for two values of an approximate similarity parameter. The value of the similarity parameter indicates how closely steady-state conditions are approached. The first (larger) value chosen produces a well-defined quasi-steady state near the body with transient fluctuations of the order of ± 10%. The second (smaller) value gives a poorly defined quasisteady state with fluctuations of the order of ±50%. More elaborate studies varying the tank length, width and depth could be made by programming the calculations.The effect of a collapsing wake has not been considered here, but might possibly be treated by similar methods.