Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T22:57:26.599Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The oseenlet as a model for separated flow in a rotating viscous liquid

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 March 2006

John W. Miles
Affiliation:
Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics and Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Sciences, University of California, La Jolla

Abstract

The disturbance induced in the uniform flow of a viscous, rotating liquid by an axial point force −D is studied under the restrictions that the Ekman number, E = 2Ων/U2, be small and that D = O(1/logE) as E → 0. The method of matched asymptotic expansions is invoked to obtain inner and outer (with reference to the dimensionless axial co-ordinate x refered to the length U/(2Ω)) approximations to the solution of the Oseen equations as E → 0. The outer approximation, E → 0 with Ex fixed, is also an outer approximation to the solution of the Navier–Stokes equations. The mass flow across any transverse plane, which is equal to D/U for an oseenlet in a non-rotating flow, vanishes in this approximation. The corresponding inner limit yields a non-uniform, cylindrical flow far upstream of the force in the inviscid limit, E → 0, if and only if D ∝ 1/(log E + const.). This cylindrical flow is a one-term, inner approximation to the solution of the Navier–Stokes equations and suffices to show that separation implies the failure of Long's hypothesis of no upstream influence for inviscid, rotating flow past a finite body. A two-term inner representation of the solution is related to Stewartson's solution of the Oseen equations for a moving source in an inviscid, rotating fluid.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1970 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

Childress, S. 1964 The slow motion of a sphere in a rotating, viscous fluid. J. Fluid Mech. 20, 305314.Google Scholar
Fraenkel, L. E. 1956 On the flow of a rotating fluid past bodies in a pipe. Proc. Roy. Soc. A 233, 506526.Google Scholar
Fraenkel, L. E. 1969 On the method of matched asymptotic expansions. Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc. 65, 209–231, 233–261, 263–284.Google Scholar
Goldstein, S. 1938 Modern Developments in Fluid Dynamics. Cambridge University Press.
Long, R. R. 1953 Steady motion around a symmetrical obstacle moving along the axis of a rotating fluid. J. Meteor. 10, 197203.Google Scholar
Maxworthy, T. 1970 The flow created by a sphere moving along the axis of a rotating, slightly viscous fluid. J. Fluid Mech. 40, 453480.Google Scholar
Miles, J. W. 1969 The lee-wave régime for a slender body in a rotating flow. J. Fluid Mech. 36, 265288.Google Scholar
Miles, J. W. 1970 The lee-wave régime for a slender body in a rotating flow. Part 2. J. Fluid Mech. 42, 201206.Google Scholar
Stewartson, K. 1968a A note on a source in a rotating liquid. Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc. 64, 507511.Google Scholar
Stewartson, K. 1968b On inviscid flow of a rotating fluid past an axially-symmetric body using Oseén's equations. Quart. J. Mech. Appl. Math. 21, 353373.Google Scholar
Van Dyke, M. 1964 Perturbation Methods in Fluid Mechanics. New York: Academic.