Study of the local turbulence generated from inertial waves focus in rotating fluids

The rotating turbulence is a fundamental phenomenon appears in many industrial flows (turbines, compressors, and wind turbines) and geophysical flows (cyclones, and ocean currents). In oceans, the steepness of the topography affects the interaction with the internal waves (Klymak et al. 2012), nonlinear interactions between the waves lead to the break of energy into turbulence.

In rotating turbulence, the inertial waves are generated as a result of the Coriolis acceleration (Hopfinger et al. 1982). An oscillating torus could be used to generate inertial waves cones that focus the energy in the apex of the cone creating local turbulence in the focus zone (Matias Duran-Matute et al. 2013).

In order to study this local turbulence, high resolution direct numerical simulations DNS have been performed for an oscillating torus put in a rotating flow, the simulations allow the study of the flow in terms of Rossby number and Reynolds number. For low Rossby number and sufficiently large Reynolds number, the inertial waves propagate and focus in the apex of the cone allowing the transfer of the energy into small structures in this zone.