Flow of nonuniformly stratified fluid of large depth over topography

This thesis extends Long's model (Long 1953) for steady flow of a hydrostatic, Boussinesq, uniformly stratified fluid of large depth over topography, to accommodate two latters of uniform stratification and subsequently variable stratification. The two-layer solution follows the work by Durran ( J. 992) and is obtained in a piecewise fashion with the appropriate matching conditions at the stratification interface. The variable stratification solution is obtained by resolving the vertical dependence of the stratification with a numerical 'shooting' or integration technique. Consequently, this solution is in general not fully analytical. These techniques are applied to small and finite-amplitude two-dimensional problems as well as small-amplitude three-dimensional problems. The two-layer solution, when implemented, encounters many of the same numerical problems seen by Durran. However, the variable stratification allows for the close approximation of the two-layer situation and does not suffer from the same convergence problems. Further, variable stratification allows for general stratification profiles. The effect known as tropopause tuning is diminished as the stratification interface continuously varies over a transition region. Similar results are also obtained for the small-amplitude three-dimensional case.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

1999

Author dc:creator

• Davis, Kevin S. (Kevin Scott), 1975-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Triantaphyllos R. Akylas.

• Mechanical Engineering

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/9409

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/9409