Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-19T04:39:46.540Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The lee-wave régime for a slender body in a rotating flow

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 March 2006

John W. Miles
Affiliation:
Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, La Jolla

Abstract

The uniform motion of a closed, axisymmetric body along the axis of an unbounded, rotating, inviscid, incompressible fluid is considered on Long's hypotheses that: the flow is steady; the flow is uniform far upstream of the body; the inertial waves excited by the body cannot propagate upstream. The appropriate similarity parameters are k, an inverse Rossby number based on the body length, and δ, the slenderness ratio of the body. It is conjectured that an upper bound to the parametric régime in which the solution implied by Long's hypotheses remains valid, say k < kc, is determined by the first occurrence, with increasing k, of a local reversal of the flow.

A general solution for the stream function is established in terms of an assumed distribution of dipoles along the axis of the body. The disturbance upstream of the body is found to be proportional to the product of k2 and the dipole moment (total dipole strength) and to fall off only as the inverse distance, as compared with the inverse cube of the distance for a potential flow. The corresponding wave drag is found to depend on the power spectrum of the dipole distribution in the axial wave-number interval (0, k) and to be a monotonically decreasing function of the axial velocity for fixed angular velocity. Asymptotic solutions for prescribed bodies are established in the following limits: (i) K → 0 with δ fixed; (ii) δ → 0 with k fixed; (iii) k → ∞ with fixed. Both the upstream disturbance and the wave drag in the limit (i) depend essentially on the dipole moment of the body with respect to a uniform, potential flow. The limit (ii) is analogous to conventional slender-body theory and yields a dipole density that is proportional to the cross-sectional area of the body. The limit (iii) leads to a singular integral equation that is solved to determine kc and the dipole moment for a slender body.

The results are applied to a sphere and a slender ellipsoid. The upstream axial velocity and the drag coefficient based on Stewartson's results for a sphere are found to differ significantly from Maxworthy's (1969) measurements, presumably in consequence of viscous separation effects. Maxworthy's measured values of upstream axial velocity are found to agree with the theoretical values for an equivalent ellipsoid, based on the sphere plus its upstream wake, for k [lsim ] kc.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1969 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Batchelor, G. K. 1956 On steady laminar flow with closed streamlines at large Reynolds number J. Fluid Mech. 1, 17790.Google Scholar
Courant, R. & Hilbert, D. 1962 Methods of Mathematical Physics, Vol. 2. New York: Interscience.
Fraenkel, L. E. 1956 On the flow of rotating fluid past bodies in a pipe. Proc. Roy. Soc A 233, 50626.Google Scholar
Greenspan, H. P. 1968 The Theory of Rotating Fluids. Cambridge University Press.
Handelsman, R. A. & Keller, J. B. 1967 Axially symmetric potential flow around a slender body J. Fluid Mech. 28, 13147.Google Scholar
Huppert, H. E. & Miles, J. W. 1969 Lee waves in a stratified flow. Part 3. Semielliptical obstacle. J. Fluid Mech. 35, 48196.Google Scholar
Lamb, H. 1932 Hydrodynamics. Cambridge University Press.
Lighthill, M. J. 1967 On waves generated in dispersive systems by travelling forcing effects, with applications to the dynamics of rotating fluids J. Fluid Mech. 27, 72552.Google Scholar
Long, R. R. 1953 Steady motion around a symmetrical obstacle moving along the axis of a rotating fluid J. Meteor. 10, 197203.Google Scholar
Long, R. R. 1955 Some aspects of the flow of stratified fluids. III. Continuous density gradients Tellus, 7, 34157.Google Scholar
Long, R. R. 1962 Velocity concentrations in stratified fluids J. Hydraulics Div., Proc. A.S.C.E. 88, 926.Google Scholar
Maxworthy, T. 1969 The flow created by a sphere moving along the axis of a rotating, slightly viscous fluid: a Proudman-Taylor problem. J. Fluid Mech. (sub judice).Google Scholar
Miles, J. W. 1968 Lee waves in a stratified flow. Part. 2. Semicircular obstacle. J. Fluid Mech. 33, 80314.Google Scholar
Miles, J. W. & Huppert, H. E. 1969 Lee waves in a stratified flow. Part. 4. Perturbation approximations. J. Fluid Mech. 35, 497526.Google Scholar
Moran, J. P. 1963 Line source distributions and slender-body theory J. Fluid Mech. 17, 285304.Google Scholar
Munk, MAX M. 1934 Aerodynamics of airships. Article in Vol. 6 of Aerodynamic Theory (W. F. Durand, Ed.). Berlin: Springer.
Muskhelishvili, N. I. 1953 Singular Integral Equations. Groningen: Noordhoff.
PÖLYA, G. & Szegö, G. 1951 Isoperimetric Inequalities in Mathematical Physics. Princeton University Press.
Rayleigh, LORD 1871 On the light from the sky, its polarization and colour. Phil. Mag. 41, 10720; Scientific Papers, vol. 1, pp. 87–103.Google Scholar
Rayleigh, LORD 1897 On the incidence of aerial and electric waves upon small obstacles. Phil. Mag. 44, 2852; Scientific Papers, vol. 4, pp. 303–26.Google Scholar
Rayleigh, LORD 1916 On the dynamics of revolving fluids. Proc. Roy. Soc. A 93, 14854; Scientific Papers, 6, 447–53.Google Scholar
Squire, H. B. 1956 Rotating fluids. Article in Surveys in Mechanics (Edited by G. K. Batchelor & R. M. Davies). Cambridge University Press.
Stewartson, K. 1958 On the motion of a sphere along the axis of a rotating fluid Quart. J. Mech. Appl. Math. 11, 3951.Google Scholar
Stewartson, K. 1968a On inviscid flow of a rotating fluid past an axially-symmetric body using Oséen's equations. Quart. J. Mech. Appl. Math. 21, 35373.Google Scholar
Stewartson, K. 1968b (personal communication).
Taylor, G. I. 1928 The energy of a body moving in an infinite fluid, with an application to airships. Proc. Roy. Soc A 120, 1321.Google Scholar
Titchmarsh, E. C. 1948 Introduction to the Theory of Fourier Integrals. Oxford University Press.
Trustrum, K. 1964 Rotating and stratified fluid flow J. Fluid Mech. 19, 41532.Google Scholar
Von Káármán, Th. 1927 Berechnung der Druckverteilung an Luftschiffkörpern Abhandlungen aus dem Aerodynamischen Institut an der Technischen Hochschule, Aachen, 6, 317.Google Scholar
Von Káarmán, TH. 1936 The problem of resistance in compressible fluids Reale Accademia d'Italia, 14, 559.Google Scholar