Effect of surface stress on interfacial solitary wave propagation
- When?
- Friday 8 June 2012, 16:00 to 17:00
- Where?
- 22AA04
- Open to:
- Staff, Students
- Speaker:
- Paul Hammerton (UEA)
Abstract: The propagation of long wavelength disturbances on the surface of a fluid layer of finite depth is considered. An arbitrary stress is applied at the surface with both tangential and normal components.
In the large Reynolds number limit the evolution equation for the surface elevation contains contributions from both boundary layers in the flow; one is adjacent to the free surface while the other lies at the base of the fluid layer. A weakly nonlinear analysis is performed leading to an evolution equation similar to the classic Korteweg-de Vries equation, but modified by additional terms due to the viscosity and to the tangential and normal stress at the surface. It is demonstrated that careful treatment of the boundary layer at the free surface is necessary when the tangential stress at the surface is non-zero. Applications include solitary wave propagation on a layer some concentration of surfactant and the effect surface charge density may have on surface waves in an applied electric field.