Numerical Simulation of Internal Waves and Effects of Accumulation of Kinetic Energy in Large Aspect Ratio Domains
Tidal forcing excites internal waves in the bulk of the ocean. Deep ocean is an example of a system with continuous stratification subject to large-scale periodic forcing. Owing to specific dispersion relation of internal waves, the domains bounded by sloping boundaries may support wave patterns with wave rays converging to closed trajectories (geometric attractors) as result of iterative focusing reflections. Previously the behavior of kinetic energy in wave attractors has been investigated in two-dimensional domain with comparable depth and length. As the geometric aspect ratio of the domain increases, the dynamic pattern of energy focusing may significantly evolve both in laminar and turbulent regimes. The present paper shows that the energy density in domains with large aspect ratio can significantly increase. In numerical simulations the input forcing has been introduced at global scale by prescribing small-amplitude deformations of the upper bound of the liquid domain. The evolution of internal wave motion in such system has been computed numerically for different values of the forcing amplitude. The behavior of the large-aspect-ratio system has been compared to the well-studied case of the system with depth-to-length ratio of order unity. A number of most typical situations has been analysed in terms of behavior of integral mechanical quantities such as total dissipation, mean kinetic energy and energy fluctuations in laminar and turbulent cases.