Related papers: Inertial wave and zonal flow in librating spherica…
We present evidence of hitherto undiscovered global-scale oscillations in the near-surface shear layer of the Sun. These oscillations are seen as large scale variations of radial shear in both the zonal and meridional flows relative to…
Low-order equal-time statistics of a barotropic flow on a rotating sphere are investigated. The flow is driven by linear relaxation toward an unstable zonal jet. For relatively short relaxation times, the flow is dominated by critical-layer…
Convection in rotating spherical geometries is an important physical process in planetary and stellar systems. Using continuation methods at low Prandtl number, we find both strong equatorially asymmetric and symmetric polar nonlinear…
We present experiments on slow granular flows in a modified (split-bottomed) Couette geometry in which wide and tunable shear zones are created away from the sidewalls. For increasing layer heights, the zones grow wider (apparently without…
We present a series of numerical simulations aimed at understanding the nature and origin of turbulence in coronal loops in the framework of the Parker model for coronal heating. A coronal loop is studied via reduced magnetohydrodynamics…
Most prior works studying tidal interactions in tight star/planet or star/star binary systems have employed linear theory of a viscous fluid in a uniformly-rotating two-dimensional spherical shell. However, compact systems may have…
The surface zonal winds observed in the giant planets form a complex jet pattern with alternating prograde and retrograde direction. While the main equatorial band is prograde on the gas giants, both ice giants have a pronounced retrograde…
Direct numerical simulations are used to study the interaction of a stream of small heavy inertial particles with the laminar and turbulent wakes of an immobile sphere facing an incompressible uniform inflow. Particles that do not collide…
In this paper, the instability of shallow water shear flow with a sheared parallel magnetic field is studied. Waves propagating in such magnetic shear flows encounter critical levels where the phase velocity relative to the basic flow…
In this paper, we consider a fundamental problem of describing the dynamics of internal gravity waves in the stratified ocean with shear flows. We develop an asymptotic representation of the wave fields in terms of the Green's functions. We…
Complex mixing and magnetic field generation occurs within stellar interiors particularly where there is a strong shear flow. To obtain a comprehensive understanding of these processes, it is necessary to study the complex dynamics of shear…
Nominal two-dimensional (2D) shear layers have been studied extensively, and their principal dynamics are well understood. In practical configurations, however, the behavior of such shear layers is affected by proximal surfaces. In this…
The remarkable robustness of isolated columnar vortices suggests the existence of fundamental constraints that prevent spontaneous disintegration. In this work, we investigate the weakly nonlinear stability of such flows, demonstrating that…
Shear strain localization into shear bands is associated with velocity weakening instabilities and earthquakes. Here, we simulate steady-state plane-shear flow of numerical granular material (gouge), confined between parallel surfaces. Both…
An inertia-gravity wave (IGW) propagating in a vertically sheared, rotating stratified fluid interacts with the pair of inertial levels that surround the critical level. An exact expression for the form of the IGW is derived here in the…
Direct numerical simulations are conducted to study the receptivity and transition mechanisms in a solitary wave boundary layer developing over randomly organized wave-like bottom topography. The boundary layer flow shows a selective…
This paper gives a pedagogic review of the envelope formalism for excitation of zonal flows by nonlinear interactions of plasma drift waves or Rossby waves, described equivalently by the Hasegawa-Mima (HM) equation or the quasigeostrophic…
A generalized logarithmic law for high-order moments of passive scalars is proposed for turbulent boundary layers. This law is analogous to the generalized log law that has been proposed for high-order moments of the turbulent longitudinal…
In this paper we report on the nonresonant conversion of convectively unstable linear gravity modes into acoustic oscillation modes in shear flows. The convectively unstable linear gravity modes can excite acoustic modes with similar…
We report on the decay of a passive scalar in chaotic mixing protocols where the wall of the vessel is rotated, or a net drift of fluid elements near the wall is induced at each period. As a result the fluid domain is divided into a central…