Numerical studies of baroclinic instability

<p>This thesis describes two studies of baroclinic instability in a rotating fluid annulus subject to differential heating. The first part is concerned with the development of a time dependent axisymmetric numerical model. The model was formulated using the control volume finite element metho...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Elliott, S, Simon S. Elliott
Other Authors: Read, P
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 1995
Subjects:
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author Elliott, S
Simon S. Elliott
author2 Read, P
author_facet Read, P
Elliott, S
Simon S. Elliott
author_sort Elliott, S
collection OXFORD
description <p>This thesis describes two studies of baroclinic instability in a rotating fluid annulus subject to differential heating. The first part is concerned with the development of a time dependent axisymmetric numerical model. The model was formulated using the control volume finite element method and was designed to be as flexible as possible both in terms of the range of problems to be studied and the techniques used to study them. Details of these techniques are presented together with a discussion of their limitations and possible refinements and extensions which could be made.</p> <p>The second part of this thesis describes a numerical study of unstable normal mode perturbations which can develop on a prescribed mean state. The growth rate and structure of these modes are examined for various background states and the relevance of these results to laboratory measurements is discussed. Evidence is presented to suggest the possible presence of hitherto unobserved baroclinic weak waves in an internally heated annulus system.</p>
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spelling oxford-uuid:eb0c26fe-b0f0-4f2b-aa3b-00428cdd2a572022-03-27T11:06:45ZNumerical studies of baroclinic instabilityThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:eb0c26fe-b0f0-4f2b-aa3b-00428cdd2a57Rotating masses of fluidEnglishPolonsky Theses Digitisation Project1995Elliott, SSimon S. ElliottRead, PRead, P<p>This thesis describes two studies of baroclinic instability in a rotating fluid annulus subject to differential heating. The first part is concerned with the development of a time dependent axisymmetric numerical model. The model was formulated using the control volume finite element method and was designed to be as flexible as possible both in terms of the range of problems to be studied and the techniques used to study them. Details of these techniques are presented together with a discussion of their limitations and possible refinements and extensions which could be made.</p> <p>The second part of this thesis describes a numerical study of unstable normal mode perturbations which can develop on a prescribed mean state. The growth rate and structure of these modes are examined for various background states and the relevance of these results to laboratory measurements is discussed. Evidence is presented to suggest the possible presence of hitherto unobserved baroclinic weak waves in an internally heated annulus system.</p>
spellingShingle Rotating masses of fluid
Elliott, S
Simon S. Elliott
Numerical studies of baroclinic instability
title Numerical studies of baroclinic instability
title_full Numerical studies of baroclinic instability
title_fullStr Numerical studies of baroclinic instability
title_full_unstemmed Numerical studies of baroclinic instability
title_short Numerical studies of baroclinic instability
title_sort numerical studies of baroclinic instability
topic Rotating masses of fluid
work_keys_str_mv AT elliotts numericalstudiesofbaroclinicinstability
AT simonselliott numericalstudiesofbaroclinicinstability