Le Reun, T, Favier, B, Barker, AJ orcid.org/0000-0003-4397-7332 et al. (1 more author) (2017) Inertial wave turbulence driven by elliptical instability. Physical Review Letters, 119 (3). 034502. ISSN 0031-9007
Abstract
The combination of elliptical deformation of streamlines and vorticity can lead to the destabilisation of any rotating flow via the elliptical instability. Such a mechanism has been invoked as a possible source of turbulence in planetary cores subject to tidal deformations. The saturation of the elliptical instability has been shown to generate turbulence composed of non-linearly interacting waves and strong columnar vortices with varying respective amplitudes, depending on the control parameters and geometry. In this paper, we present a suite of numerical simulations to investigate the saturation and the transition from vortex-dominated to wave-dominated regimes. This is achieved by simulating the growth and saturation of the elliptical instability in an idealised triply periodic domain, adding a frictional damping to the geostrophic component only, to mimic its interaction with boundaries. We reproduce several experimental observations within one idealised local model and complement them by reaching more extreme flow parameters. In particular, a wave-dominated regime that exhibits many signatures of inertial wave turbulence is characterised for the first time. This regime is expected in planetary interiors.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2017 American Physical Society. Reproduced in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Mathematics (Leeds) > Applied Mathematics (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number Leverhulme Trust ECF-2014-216 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 16 Jun 2017 10:10 |
Last Modified: | 23 Jun 2023 22:31 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Physical Society |
Identification Number: | 10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.034502 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:117822 |