Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 April 2006
The flow field induced by a sphere oscillating horizontally in a linearly stratified fluid is studied using a series of laboratory experiments. The resulting flows are shown to depend on the Stokes number β, the Keulegan–Carpenter number KC and the internal Froude number Fr. For Fr [clubs ] 0.2, it is shown that the nature of the resulting flow field is approximately independent of Fr and, based on this observation, a flow regime diagram is developed in the (β, KC)-plane. The flow regimes include: (i) fully-attached flow; (ii) attached vortices; (iii) local vortex shedding; and (iv) standing eddy pair. An internal-wave flow regime is also identified but, for such flows, the motion field is a function of Fr as well. Some quantitative measures are given to allow for future comparisons of the present results with analytical and/or numerical models. Wherever possible, the results are compared with the experiments of Tatsuno & Bearman (1990) on right circular cylinders oscillating in homogeneous fluids.