English

Objective Eulerian Coherent Structures

Dynamical Systems 2016-06-22 v2 Mathematical Physics math.MP Fluid Dynamics

Abstract

We define objective Eulerian Coherent Structures (OECSs) in two-dimensional, non-autonomous dynamical systems as instantaneously most influential material curves. Specifically, OECSs are stationary curves of the averaged instantaneous material stretching-rate or material shearing-rate functionals. From these objective (frame-invariant) variational principles, we obtain explicit differential equations for hyperbolic, elliptic and parabolic OECSs. As illustration, we compute OECSs in an unsteady ocean velocity data set. In comparison to structures suggested by other common Eulerian diagnostic tools, we find OECSs to be the correct short-term cores of observed trajectory deformation patterns.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1512.02112,
  title  = {Objective Eulerian Coherent Structures},
  author = {Mattia Serra and George Haller},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1512.02112},
  year   = {2016}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-22T12:03:24.539Z