The Growth of a Turbulent Wake in a Density-Stratified Fluid

摘要

The force of gravity causes a turbulent wake in a density-stratified fluid to eventually cease its vertical growth and then to collapse towards its horizontal midplane. In the present investigation this phenomenon was studied experimentally. The turbulent wake was created by means of a spiral paddle, agitated by a pendulum-type arrangement outside a transparent lucite tank. Data were obtained from tracings of the motion pictures taken by a 16 mm movie camera. Both the pendulum arrangement and the paddle diameter were varied to find the possible influence of the experimental conditions. It was observed that the initial rate of growth in the vertical direction is constant, depending primarily on the density gradient and the agitation mechanism (i.e. pendulum and paddle diameter). This initial rate of growth of the wake, the maximum vertical thickness of the wake, the time at which collapse begins and the turbulence intensity within the wake at that time, were all correlated with the Vaisala frequency, resulting in three important constants which seemed to be independent of the experimental conditions. (Author)