Paper 4, Section II, A

Fluid Dynamics
Part IB, 2012

The equations governing the flow of a shallow layer of inviscid liquid of uniform depth HH rotating with angular velocity 12f\frac{1}{2} f about the vertical zz-axis are

utfv=gηxvt+fu=gηyηt+H(ux+vy)=0\begin{aligned} \frac{\partial u}{\partial t}-f v &=-g \frac{\partial \eta}{\partial x} \\ \frac{\partial v}{\partial t}+f u &=-g \frac{\partial \eta}{\partial y} \\ \frac{\partial \eta}{t}+H\left(\frac{\partial u}{\partial x}+\frac{\partial v}{\partial y}\right) &=0 \end{aligned}

where u,vu, v are the xx - and yy-components of velocity, respectively, and η\eta is the elevation of the free surface. Show that these equations imply that

qt=0, where q=ωfηH and ω=vxuy\frac{\partial q}{\partial t}=0, \quad \text { where } \quad q=\omega-\frac{f \eta}{H} \text { and } \omega=\frac{\partial v}{\partial x}-\frac{\partial u}{\partial y}

Consider an initial state where there is flow in the yy-direction given by

u=η=0,<x<v={g2fe2x,x<0g2fe2x,x>0\begin{aligned} u &=\eta=0, \quad-\infty<x<\infty \\ v &= \begin{cases}\frac{g}{2 f} e^{2 x}, & x<0 \\ -\frac{g}{2 f} e^{-2 x}, & x>0\end{cases} \end{aligned}

Find the initial potential vorticity.

Show that when this initial state adjusts, there is a final steady state independent of yy in which η\eta satisfies

2ηx2ηa2={e2x,x<0e2x,x>0\frac{\partial^{2} \eta}{\partial x^{2}}-\frac{\eta}{a^{2}}= \begin{cases}e^{2 x}, & x<0 \\ e^{-2 x}, & x>0\end{cases}

where a2=gH/f2a^{2}=g H / f^{2}.

In the case a=1a=1, find the final free surface elevation that is finite at large x|x| and which is continuous and has continuous slope at x=0x=0, and show that it is negative for all xx.