Experimental observation of a strong mean flow induced by internal gravity waves

Guilhem Bordes, Antoine Venaille, Sylvain Joubaud, Philippe Odier, Thierry Dauxois

Published 2012-03-13, updated 2012-08-31Version 3

We report the experimental observation of a robust horizontal mean flow induced by internal gravity waves. A wave beam is forced at the lateral boundary of a tank filled with a linearly stratified fluid initially at rest. After a transient regime, a strong jet appears in the wave beam, with horizontal recirculations outside the wave beam. We present a simple physical mechanism predicting the growth rate of the mean flow and its initial spatial structure. We find good agreement with experimental results.