Instabilities of finite-width internal wave beams

Internal gravity waves are fundamental to the dynamics of density stratified fluids and the instability mechanisms by which these waves dissipate their energy are a potentially significant factor that underlies the distribution of energy and momentum in the natural environment. Recently, it has been recognized that internal waves in the oceans and atmosphere often take the form of beams: plane waves with locally confined spatial profile. While there is a large body of theoretical work concerning the instability of sinusoidal internal waves, instability mechanisms of beams are not yet fully understood. Although various nonlinear mechanisms have been proposed, it remains unclear which, if any, are dominant in the natural environment and under what circumstances. This thesis examines the instability of finite-width internal wave beams in order to extend the current understanding of internal wave instability into more realistic settings.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctoral

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Fan, Boyu,Ph.D.Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Triantaphyllos R. Akylas.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses may be protected by copyright. Please reuse MIT thesis content according to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy, which is available through the URL provided.

Licence dc:rights.uri

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

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/129060

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/129060